Belka and Strelka were two of the dogs used in the soviet space programme, which paved the way for manned flights. They were blasted into space on Sputnik 5 on August 19, 1960 (following shortly the fatal flight of Laika on November 3, 1957). They survived (go soviet union!) and Strelka actually had a bunch of puppies, so she's still around somewhere today.
This is my really small tribute to small, innocent animals being locked into huge rockets and chucked into space.
Go science! Do a thing!
