Cover from Russia. Thank you Elena !

Nice postcard from Russia.

Postcard "Dog Laika". Artist E. Gundobin 1958. On November 3d, 1957 the first space traveler dog Laika made flight on the onboard of the second artificial Earth satellite. The posctard came with nice stamps too.

The Russian Post has issued a stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of the space trip of famous Soviet dogs Belka and Strelka.

From Wikipedia:Belka (Белка, literally, "squirrel") and Strelka (Стрелка, "Arrow") spent a day in space aboard Korabl-Sputnik-2 (Sputnik 5) on August 19, 1960 before safely returning to Earth.

They were accompanied by a grey rabbit, 42 mice, 2 rats, flies and a number of plants and fungi. All passengers survived. They were the first Earth-born creatures to go into orbit and return alive.

Strelka went on to have six puppies with a male dog named Pushok who participated in many ground-based space experiments, but never made it into space. One of the pups was named Pushinka (Пушинка, "Fluffy") and was presented to President John F. Kennedy's daughter Caroline by Nikita Khrushchev in 1961.

On the 25 of January the Russian Post issued a stamp to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mstislav Keldysh.

The stamp features a portrait of the scientist, the first artificial Earth satellite and Keldysh's formula (on the completeness of the eigenfunction).

Mstislav Keldysh was a Soviet scientist in the field of mathematics and mechanics. He was one of the key figures behind Soviet space program. Among scientific circles of USSR Keldysh was known with epithet "the Chief Theoretician".

The crater Keldysh on the Moon, and a research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh are named after him. A minor planet, 2186 Keldysh discovered in 1973 by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh, is also named in his honor.

Chernuchka Cosmonaut Dog

Although many soviet dogs died in their flights to the space, some of them returned alive. One of the Soviet space dogs was Chernuchka (Чернyшка). The Spunik missions of the 3/9/1961 (with Chernuchka) and 3/25/1961 (with Zvezdochka) were a complete success.

Three week after, the Vostok 1 carried the first cosmonaut of the world, Jury Gagarin.

URSS postcard sent to DDR (Deutsche Democratic Republic) in 1961

Laika The First Animal in Orbit the Earth

The dog Laika (Лайка), was the first alive animal in orbiting the Earth. She did it in the Soviet Sputnik 2 on the 3/11/1957, a month after the first satellite Sputnik 1 was put into orbit.

Like other animals in the sapce, Laika died betwen five and sevent hours after the lunch, long before it was planned.

This cover is from Romania