(Image: Auctionata)

Tempted to dress up your dog as a Soviet space pioneer? Keep it real by investing in this genuine 1950s doggy spacesuit, used to test the effects of low gravity and high-speed launches. Although, judging by this model dog’s expression, your dogmonaut may not enjoy the experience as much as you do.

The lace-up, full-body suit comes complete with an oxygen supply tube, and will be going on the auction block on 13 September with an estimate of €8000. Made out of cotton, nylon, rubber and aluminium, the suit is believed to have been used during the training of the dogs Belka and Strelka for the USSR’s Korabl-Sputnik 2 mission.

While the US used chimpanzees in their space race tests, Russian scientists chose dogs, because of their willingness to sit still for long periods. Some of the tests involved strapping dogs into capsules and launching them to a height of 80 kilometres. The capsules then returned to Earth by parachute.


The dog Laika became the first animal to orbit the Earth in 1957, dying from stress and overheating around 6 hours into the flight. Belka and Strelka were luckier: in 1960, they became the first dogs to return to Earth safely, having spent a day in space.

Strelka subsequently gave birth to six puppies, one of which was presented as a gift to John F. Kennedy’s family.