Dogs of the Soviet Space Program Note Card

The lush, jewel-toned portraits featured on these notecards are reproductions of the oil paintings by M.A. Peers, which are on display at the Museum of Jurassic Technology as part of the exhibit, The Lives of Perfect Creatures: Dogs of The Soviet Space Program. The images are hand-tipped into debossed note cards of substantial, ivory-colored paper stock, and the cards are printed on the back with additional historical information. Comes with a matching envelope and is packaged in a protective clear plastic sleeve.

On November 3, 1957, just 30 days after the first ever man-made object entered into earth orbit, the Soviet Union launched a second "artificial moon." Born aloft by a proto-Vostok launch vehicle to an altitude of 934 miles, Sputnik II was not only substantially larger than its predecessor, but also differed in so far as it included a living being. This first earth-born creature to leave the earth was, of course, the famed Laika (barker), whose flight commanded the attention of the entire world. Between 1959 and 1961, 10 more dogs in 6 separate missions followed Laika's courageous example culminating in the flight of Zvezdochka (daughter of the stars), who made a single orbit flight in final preparation for April 12, 1961, when, proven tenable by the dogs, Yuri Gagarin was launched into space in the first human extra-terrestrial flight.

"All the Universe is full of the lives of perfect creatures."

-K.E. Tsiolkovsky