Before humans spent weeks in orbit, Soviet scientists needed to understand what prolonged spaceflight could do to living bodies. In February 1966, two small dogs, Veterok and Ugolyok, were placed inside a spacecraft and sent into orbit aboard Kosmos 110. They remained there for about 22 days before returning alive. The mission was designed to examine the effects of extended weightlessness and radiation, but it also exposed the physical difficulties that came with keeping an animal in space for weeks.
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