Wow, I had forgotten about them --- just remembered Laika, who went up and around the world but did not survive the reentry.
The pic and name of Laika is one of my first memories - I remember my parents talking about her and heatedly discussing if it was right to send up a living dog before they could make sure that the dog came back alive. I was 2.5; years old ...
Thanks for the jog to my memory, Wiz!
(This vBulletin is so stupid! You can't type the half-sign, the percent sign, nor the umlauts ...Grrrrrrrrr).