China revealed its mission to secretly bring dogs to space

On the occasion of Mau Tuat's New Year, a Chinese research institute has revealed how this hospital selects two dogs and fastens them into small, enclosed chambers on missiles in space flights. luck survived more than half a century ago.

It was in 1966 and at a secret military base in southeast China, a small dog called Little Leopard was about to be put up in space.

The scientists carefully placed the 2-year-old dog, called Xiao Bao, in Chinese, into a cage and put it in a small space on the T-7A rocket.

Shan Shan (left) and Little Leopard have been put into space.(Photo: QQ).

Little Leopard was chosen to join the space conquest mission in Guangde County, Anhui Province from more than 100 small dogs bred from the good performing dogs of an animal circus. They were chosen for their looks - scientists want them to be "good-looking" - to undergo a series of tests, including being locked in a room and subjected to noise of up to 100 decibels to see if they have Can withstand the sound of a rocket launcher.

Such tests are too harsh for most other dogs, but Little Leopard and the Shan Shan 3-year-old dog have proved to be the most intelligent and resilient animals.

Little Leopard and Shan Shan are the first and only large animals used by China to collect biological data for the human flight into space. Both trips had problems and no mission was on orbit. But both dogs survived in the harsh conditions an astronaut could be injured or killed.

But after the experiment, Chinese space officials decided not to follow the path of the Russians and Americans, which brought many animals to space for testing. Some of them never returned, like Laika, a brave dog who became the first creature to be taken up into space, circling the Earth and also the first animal to sacrifice in orbit.

Two dogs during training.(Photo: QQ).

"Legendary trip"

Detailed information about China's secret program that brought dogs to space more than half a century ago was revealed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in an article last week.

On the occasion of Mau Tuat's New Year, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the organization that oversaw the program, said it wanted to "celebrate the legendary journey to the sky of two dogs".

On July 15, 1966, Zhao Xiuhua went to the Little Leopard military base. Zhao, 21, was prepared for the launch, but when she was asked to launch the launch pad, the height of the rocket - roughly the height of a 20-story building - was really a challenge. Zhao later revealed that the dog never faced such a high object during the practice, and so did she.

Both were frightened, and Zhao hugged the dog to try to calm him down, patted him and talked quietly with it.

Eventually he calmed down, allowing the scientists to tie it to a sealed compartment filled with tracking devices. The main devices will focus on tracking but changes in Little Leopard's breathing, blood circulation, heart rate, body temperature at different stages of the flight, and sensors are placed in the blood. Vascular in dog neck to collect accurate data about the process of supplying blood to the brain.

A small rocket weighing a ton left the launch pad. T-7A, a research rocket, was used to transport equipment to the edge of the atmosphere. It is not suitable for a safe and comfortable journey of an astronaut.

Little Leopard, fastened inside the compartment, suffered pain and terrible sounds during the flight that lasted 20 minutes later. Leopard began to panic, because he was afraid of heights. The trainer said that she tried very hard to help the dog calm down to take off and she could see the fear in her eyes.

Little Leopard is welcome to return alive.(Photo: QQ).

About 20 km before reaching the Earth's low orbit, the cavity containing Little Leopard was released at 80km from the missile and landed on a mountain about 40km from the launch site.

And when he was brought back to the safe launch site by the helicopter to meet the trainer again, a crowd was waiting and Little Leopard was welcomed as a hero, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Scientists have collected some data from Little Leopard's trip.

Two weeks later, Shan Shan made a similar journey on another T-7A rocket. But its journey is even more difficult than that of Little Leopard. Strong waves generated by rocket engines have damaged the tracking device and therefore scientists have not obtained data on Shan Shan. And, once again, missiles don't reach orbit.

But Shan Shan also survived the mission, and both dogs were brought back to Beijing, where senior government officials awarded honorary medals to them.

It is unclear what happened to the dogs after China launched the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).

The Chinese Academy of Sciences revealed that they also tried using monkeys for missions but eventually gave up because monkeys were "too active". They are banned from participating in Chinese space programs after harming research facilities too many times.

After putting about a dozen mice and two dogs into space, Chinese officials decided not to bring any more large animals into the universe because the data was not reliable. A researcher related to China's manned space program said the country uses fewer animals in space experiments than the US and Russia.

China then several times launched unmanned spacecraft launches, before bringing the first astronaut, Yang Liwei, into space in 2003. Since then, more than 10 astronauts have been China has put into space and Beijing's ambitious multi-billion dollar space program has set a plan to set up a space station in 2020.