Status
Success
Korabl-Sputnik 3
Thu Dec 01, 1960 07:30 UTC
The two dogs in this launch, Pcholka and Mushka, made it to orbit safely, orbited for a day, but a malfunction sent the craft on the wrong descent trajectory, which would have allowed foreign countries to inspect the capsule, so the capsule was self-destructed.
Rocket
Mission Details
Korabl-Sputnik 3
This mission started off well. The Vostok spacecraft containing the dogs Pcholka and Mushka was carried successfully to orbit by the Vostok 8K72 rocket and orbited for a day. After this, a deorbit burn was performed, but the engines did not shut off as planned but burned to depletion. This would have resulted in a trajectory which would land them outside Soviet territory and the craft could have been inspected by foreign nations. Because of this, they decided to self-destruct the vehicle with an explosive charge, which immediately killed both of the dogs in the disintegration.