On March 9, 1961, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 9. This mission was a test flight of the Vostok spacecraft, which would later carry the first cosmonauts into space. Inside the spacecraft was a ...

Leading up to Yuri Gagarin's historic Vostok 1 flight, the Soviet Union launched two missions with a man-like mannequin, Ivan Ivanovich, on board.

Ivan Ivanovich, the protagonist of Little Orpheus, sometimes comes off a bit like a dummy. In real life, he definitely was. "Ivan Ivanovich" was the name the Soviets gave the mannequin they tossed ...

This undated photo, provided by Sotheby's in New York, shows the Vostok 3KA-2 space capsule, flown by mannequin cosmonaut Ivan Ivanovich on March 25, 1961--the final test mission ...