flight projects. He trained and supervised the animals used in the Sputnik 2 project. Spuntik 2 was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, on November 3, 1957, and the first to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika. Gazenko continued his work as part of the team behind the Vostok program. He supervised and trained the animals used in the 1960 vostok prototype flight. In the aftermath of its failure, he adopted a survivor of this flight – a small dog named Krasavka (Красавка, "Little Beauty") also known as Kometka (Кометка, "Little Comet"). Krasavka went on to have puppies and continued living with Gazenko and his family until her death 14 years later. Gazenko was also directly involved in training the first human cosmonauts of the Vostok 1 project, including Yuri Gagarin. Gagarin himself jokingly referred to it by saying: "I don't know whether I'm the first man in space, or the last dog in space." In 1969, by the decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers Gazenko was assigned to the 3rd General Directorate of the Ministry of Health as Director of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems. His research of that period was focused on basic problems of space biomedicine. The study of the impact of zero gravity on living organisms allowed justification of the principles and methods of protecting humans from the unfavourable effects of space flight and creation of a system of supporting the health and productivity of space crews before, during, and after the flight. From 1978 Gazenko was involved in developing the system of physiological, health, and psychological measures for crews in prolonged space flights and after return to earth. He initiated the Cosmos biosatellite nonhuman primate program, which has been highly successful since its genesis in 1979. He recalls how difficult it was to decide to fly a primate for the first time. "It was obvious to us that we had to fly monkeys if we wanted to resolve the big questions about manned space flight. But our expertise was with other animals, like mice and dogs, so we didn't dare to fly monkeys for a long time." Close contacts with American primate researchers were valuable, Gazenko says. "They helped us to overcome the, well, let's say the mental barrier." Later life Gazenko was elected president of the All-Union (now Russia) Physiological Society named