Cocosmanaut and Cactusmanaut

In Russia astronauts are being called “cosmonauts”, but this is not the case.
Those are two widely discussed Russian heroes: cocosmonaut and cactusmonaut.
They travel to cocosmos (space).
First Space Shuttle Ever

What you see here is what had to be the first space shuttle ever. Twenty two years before first Russian space shuttle “Buran” or 10 years before the first American shuttle Soviets projected and built manned spaceship aircraft that could land from the orbit by itself. It had space only for one pilot and was more rather a proof of concept for the spacecraft that can land as a normal plane. It is not very clear these days if this one had any successful launches and landings just because all the projects was classified, but still there are photos of it now and then.
First Russian Space Dogs

We had first Russian space pig a few day ago. Ok now it’s turn for Russian space dogs.
There were a lot of them. Before the first human has traveled to space and back there were twenty nine launches with dogs. Ten dogs died, saving the life to the first human offering Russian space scientists invaluable data on how all the systems of the ship behave during the space flight, launch and its landing. Some dogs even had a few flights.
First Russian Pig in Space

Before sending the first human Yuri Gagarin to space, Russian scientists made a lot of experiments with animals.
The most well known are two dogs who were sent in Russian rocket just before the first human made his flight.
This launch of the first space pig is less known to public, and in this Year of the Pig according to Oriental calendar, we can commemorate this brave pioneer of Russian space science.
And look how this hero is treaded with humanity - they gave him some wine before the launch in order to bring it in relaxed state. (more…)
