Up & Down

A five-ton Soviet space vehicle carrying a female dog named Chernushka (Blackie) and "other biological objects" last week spun into a low orbit around the earth. Announced the U.S.S.R.: "After fulfilling the outlined research program, the vessel landed on command at a preset area of the Soviet Union on the same day.

The experimental animal feels well.'' Said a Russian radio announcer: "The chief aim was to further perfect spaceships and to establish on them a system that will provide necessary conditions for man's flight.'' All well and good--but on the basis of announced results, hardly more impressive than the Soviets' own feat of last Aug. 20, when they landed two dogs from orbit in a spaceship weighing almost as much as the current one.

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