First successful recovery of the Soviet Vostok-2 spy satellite (1K-2 prototype). On board were the dogs Strelka and Belka. This occurred just 10 days after a similar American success with the recovery of the flag. Two days earlier, the Americans had managed to photograph and recover the photographic film. The Soviet success paved the way for the Zenit-2 spy satellite program, as well as the Vostok-3 manned program. However, it would take another 13 launches (three of which failed) for Zenit-2 to achieve its first full operational success.
