Laika the Dog - First Animal in Outer Space, 1957 Laika the Dog Laika the Dog The First Animal in Orbit Laika, Russian cosmonaut dog, 1957. Laika was the first animal to orbit the Earth, travelling on board the Sputnik 2 spacraft launched on 3 November 1957. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images) Updated November 03, 2015. Who Was Laika the Dog? Aboard the Soviet's Sputnik 2, Laika, a dog, became the very first living creature to enter orbit. However, since the Soviets did not create a re-entry plan, Laika died in space. Laika's death sparked debates about animal rights around the world. Dates: Launched on November 3, 1957 Also Known As: Kudryavka; Layka; Muttnik Three Weeks to Build a Rocket The Cold War was only a decade old when the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States began.

On October 4, 1957, the Soviets were the first to successfully launch a rocket into space with their launch of Sputnik 1, a basketball-sized satellite. Approximately a week after Sputnik 1's successful launch, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev suggested that another rocket be launched into space to mark the 40th anniversary of the Russian Revolution on November 7, 1957. That left Soviet engineers only three weeks to fully design and build a new rocket. Choosing a Dog The Soviets, in ruthless competition with the United States, wanted to make another "first;" so they decided to send the first living creature into orbit. continue reading below our video 10 Facts About the Titanic That You Don't Know While Soviet engineers hurriedly worked on the design, three stray dogs (Albina, Mushka, and Laika) were extensively tested and trained for the flight. The dogs were confined in small places, subjected to extremely loud noises and vibrations, and made to wear a newly created space suit. All of these tests were to condition the dogs to the experiences they would likely have during the flight.

Though all three did well, it was Laika who was chosen to board Sputnik 2. Into the Module Laika, which means "barker" in Russian, was a three-year old, stray mutt that weighed 13 pounds and had a calm demeanor. She was placed in her restrictive module several days in advance. Right before launch, Laika was covered in an alcohol solution and painted with iodine in several spots so that sensors could be placed on her. The sensors were to monitor her heartbeat, blood pressure, and other bodily functions to understand any physical changes that might occur in space. Although Laika's module was restrictive, it was padded and had just enough room for her to lay down or stand as she wished. She also had access to special, gelatinous, space food made for her. Launch On November 3, 1957, Sputnik 2 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome (now located in Kazakhstan near the Aral Sea ). The rocket successfully reached space and the spacecraft, with Laika inside, began to orbit the Earth. The spacecraft circled the Earth every hour and 42 minutes, traveling approximately 18,000 miles per hour.

As the world watched and waited for news of Laika's condition, the Soviet Union announced that a recovery plan had not been established for Laika. With only three weeks to create the new spacecraft, they did not have time to create a way for Laika to make it home. The de facto plan was for Laika to die in space. Laika Dies in Space Although all agree that Laika made it into orbit, there had long been a question as to how long she lived after that. Some said that the plan was for her to live for several days and that her last food allotment was poisoned. Others said she died four days into the trip when there was an electrical burnout and the interior temperatures rose dramatically. And still others said she died five to seven hours into the flight from stress and heat. The true story of when Laika died was not revealed until 2002, when Soviet scientist Dimitri Malashenkov addressed the World Space Congress in Houston, Texas. Malashenkov ended four decades of speculation when he amitted that Laika had died from overheating just hours after the launch.

Long after Laika's death, the spacecraft continued to orbit the Earth with all its systems off until it reentered Earth's atmosphere five months later, on April 14, 1958, and burned up on reentry. A Hero Laika proved that it was possible for a living being to enter space. Her death also sparked animal rights debates across the planet. In the Soviet Union, Laika and all the other animals that made space flight possible are remembered as heroes. In 2008, a statue of Laika was unveiled near a military research facility in Moscow. Laika the Dog & the First Animals in Space Laika the Dog & the First Animals in Space By Elizabeth Dohrer, SPACE.com Contributor | September 25, 2012 06:55pm ET MORE The Soviet Union stunned the world on Nov. 3, 1957, with the launch of Sputnik 2. On board the small satellite was a little dog, Laika, the first animal to orbit Earth. However, Laika was not the first animal in space. The United States and the U.S.S.R. had been putting animals atop rockets since 1947.

Laika, a mixed-breed dog, was the first living being in orbit. She was launched on the Soviet Union's Sputnik 2 mission in November 1957. Credit: NASA In the early days of rocket science, no one knew what the effects of weightlessness would be. Animals — mainly dogs, monkeys and chimps — were used to test the safety and feasibility of launching a living being into space and bringing it back unharmed. Since then, animals have continued to play an important role in understanding the impact of microgravity on many biological functions. Astronauts have studied all kinds of animals — wasps, beetles, tortoises, flies, worms, fish, spiders, rabbits, bees, ants, frogs, mice, crickets, rats, newts, snails, urchins, moths, brine shrimp, jellyfish, guinea pigs, butterflies, scorpions and cockroaches. Sputnik and Muttnik Laika was a young, mostly-Siberian husky. She was rescued from the streets of Moscow. Soviet scientists assumed that a stray dog would have already learned to endure harsh conditions of hunger and cold temperatures.

Laika and two other dogs were trained for space travel by being kept in small cages and learning to eat a nutritious gel that would be their food in space. The dog's name was originally Kudryavka, or Little Curly, but she became known internationally as Laika, a Russian word for several breeds of dog similar to a husky. American reporters dubbed her Muttnik as a pun on Sputnik. Unfortunately, Laika's trip into space was one-way only. A re-entry strategy could not be worked out in time for the launch. It is unknown exactly how long Laika lived in orbit — perhaps a few hours or a few days — until the power to her life-support system gave out. Sputnik 2 burned up in the upper atmosphere in April 1958. The first animal astronauts Although there is no distinct boundary between the atmosphere and space, an imaginary line about 68 miles (110 kilometers) from the surface, called the Karman line, is usually where scientists say Earth's atmosphere meets outer space. The first animals to reach space — not counting any bacteria that may have hitched a ride on previous rockets — were fruit flies. On Feb.

20, 1947, the United States put fruit flies aboard captured German V-2 rockets to study radiation exposure at high altitudes. In 3 minutes and 10 seconds, the fruit flies reached a distance of 68 miles. The first mammal in space was Albert II, a Rhesus monkey. Albert I's mission had been unsuccessful, but the second Albert reached a distance of 83 miles on June 14, 1949. Albert was anesthetized during flight and implanted with sensors to measure his vital signs. Unfortunately, Albert II died upon impact at re-entry. While the United States was experimenting with monkeys, the Soviet Union was experimenting with dogs. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union had slots for at least 57 dogs. However, because some dogs flew more than once, fewer than 57 actually participated. The first dogs launched, Tsygan and Dezik, were aboard the R-1 IIIA-1. The dogs reached space on July 22, 1951, but did not orbit. They were the first mammals successfully recovered from spaceflight.

After Laika, the Soviet Union sent two more dogs, Belka and Strelka, into space on Aug. 19, 1960. The animals were the first to actually orbit and return alive. Ham the chimpanzee after his successful suborbital spaceflight of Jan. 31, 1961. Credit: NASA Other members of the first space menagerie include: Gordo, a squirrel monkey, launched 600 miles high on Dec. 13, 1958. He died on splashdown when a flotation device failed. Able, a Rhesus monkey, and Baker, a squirrel monkey, were launched together on May 28, 1959. They flew 300 miles high and returned unharmed. However, Able died during an operation to remove an electrode from under her skin. Baker lived until 1984, dying of kidney failure at age 27. Ham, a chimpanzee trained to perform tasks during spaceflight. Ham, named after the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center, became a celebrity after his flight on Jan. 31, 1961.

Ham learned to pull levers to receive banana pellets and avoid electric shocks. He successfully became the first animal to actually interact with a space vessel rather than simply ride in it. On Oct. 18, 1963, French scientists launched the first cat into space. Felix was successfully retrieved after a parachute descent. Two Russian dogs, Veterok and Ugolyok were launched into space on Feb. 22, 1966. They orbited for a record-breaking 22 days. Humans did not surpass the record until 1974. Animals in other space research Although the early animal astronauts achieved great fame, many other animals have quietly contributed to the body of scientific knowledge about life in space. As humans have grown more accustomed to space travel, fewer animals make the front-page news. Still, their contribution are important. Some animals have been sent up as part of experiments designed by students, others by NASA and other countries. By 2004, the space shuttle program had flown over two dozen SpaceLab experimental packages. Nearly all of the experiments were designed with one main purpose in mind: to study the effects of microgravity on the biological functions of earth creatures.

Some of the biological functions that have been studied are (to name just a few): brain states, behavioral performance, cardiovascular status, fluid and electrolyte balance, metabolic state, tissue development, and mating in zero gravity. Here are some examples of specific experiments: Nov. 9, 1970: Two bullfrogs were launched on a one-way mission to learn more about space motion sickness. Some water bears eat microscopic animals, while others consume algae. Credit: Daiki Horikawa, NASA Ames July 28, 1973: Two garden spiders named Arabella and Anita were used to study how orbiting earth would impact spiders' ability to spin webs. Arabella spun a fairly symmetric web even though the thread thickness varied — something that earthbound spiders don't experience. July 10, 1985: Ten newts flew on board the Bion 7. Their front limbs were amputated in order to study regeneration in space to better understand how humans might recover from space injuries. April 17, 1998: More than 2,000 creatures joined in 16 days of neurological testing alongside the seven-member human crew of the shuttle Columbia.

September 2007: Microscopic creatures commonly known as water bears (tardigrades) survived a 10-day exposure to open space. The creatures are known to have the ability to withstand extreme conditions, including dehydration, and still recover and reproduce. The animals were dried out and re-hydrated after surviving cosmic rays, a near vacuum, and freezing temperatures. — Elizabeth Dohrer, SPACE.com Contributor ​Why We Still Want Laika the Space Dog to Come Home | Motherboard “Laika” by Jenny Schukin. Image: © Jenny Schukin , used with permission ​Why We Still Want Laika the Space Dog to Come Home Written by November 3, 2014 // 01:50 PM EST Copy This URL On this day in 1957, a stray mutt named Laika became the first animal ever to orbit the Earth. She was launched on Sputnik 2, a mission that reinforced the huge lead that the Soviet space program had over the Americans in the early years of the space race. Her historic voyage marked a major milestone for space exploration , and she has become an international symbol of triumph over impossible odds.

But there is a darker side to this optimistically heroic image we have thrust on the most famous of the canine cosmonauts. Mere hours after she boldly went where no dog had gone before, Laika made history for a second time by becoming the first animal to die in orbit. For decades, Soviet officials lied about the time, cause, and manner of her death, claiming that she passed away painlessly several days after the launch. Some even claimed she hung on for a full week . But in 2002, Sputnik 2 scientist Dimitri Malashenkov put a near half-century of rumors to rest by admitting Laika died on her fourth circuit around the Earth, about five to seven hours after launch. And her death was, unfortunately, far from painless. A Romanian stamp honoring Laika. Image: Wikipedia The Soviets may have had a head start on the Americans, but by no means did that mean that their spacecraft were flight-ready. Sputnik 2 was hurriedly launched less than a month after Sputnik 1, and Laika was never intended to survive the journey.

The plan was to euthanize her with poisoned dog food after several days of tests, but instead, a malfunction in the slapdash temperature control system resulted in her dying from stress and overheating. Throughout all of this, Laika was absolutely terrified. Her heart was beating at triple its normal rate during the launch. With no handlers to comfort her—as they had after centrifuge tests —it took much longer than usual for her to calm down. No sooner had the stress of the launch receded than Laika was exposed to the spiraling heat and humidity, in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit , that would end up killing her. It’s excruciating to imagine this poor dog, born a stray on the harsh streets of Moscow, dying alone and scared in outer space. It’s especially heart-breaking that she so enthusiastically trusted her caretakers, completely oblivious to their ultimate plans for her. Mission scientist Vladimir Yazdovsky, for example, took her home to play with his children before the launch. "I wanted to do something nice for her,” Yazdovsky later said . “She had so little time left to live." For people who support animal rights as well as aggressive space exploration, Laika represents a powerful crisis of conscience.

As much as she is an adorable poster girl for early spaceflight victories, so too is she a pervasive symbol of the ethical debate over experimenting on animals for scientific advancement. Yes, she earned an enviable place in space history. But where Soviet and American astronauts could consent to putting their lives on the line, Laika had no ability to do the same. She died not knowing where the hell she was, why she was weightless, or whether she’d ever come home again. “Laika” by Lars Brown. Image: Lars Brown , used with permission The double-edged nature of Laika’s story was recognized right away, and her death sparked a global debate over animal rights . Many argued that the fear and pain she suffered could never be redeemed by her substantial contribution to human spaceflight. Even Oleg Gazenko, who worked closely with Laika during her training, admitted he regretted sending her to her death in 1998. “The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it,” he said at a Moscow conference in the late 90s .

“We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog." This essential bittersweetness surrounding Laika’s life and death has been echoed by her evolution as an enduring pop culture figure. There is no lack of artwork inspired by her, such as the cover image by Jenny Schukin or the above portrait by Lars Brown, both of which capture both the heroic and melancholy sides of journey. The quirky animation studio that made Coraline, Paranorman, and The Boxtrolls is named for her, as is the space travel Playstation game Planet Laika. On top of that, multiple songs have paid tribute to her twin role as a pioneer and as a martyr, and often express hope that she will magically return. The final verse of “Laika” by Chicago rock band Kill Hannah, for example, goes, “I know how alone you feel so far away/ While they pretend to remember you/ Laika, I'll make you proud/ Is Laika coming home? Laika, please come home.” That “please come home” sentiment has been repeated by multiple artists and writers across a wide range of platforms.

When fans were bummed out by her death in Nick Abadzis’ graphic novel Laika , Abadzis wrote an alternate ending that had her morphing into a superpowerful being called Cosmodog, hellbent on revenge against the scientists who sent her to space to die. Laika in her final resting place. Image: National Space Science Data Center The fact that Laika can still inspire this palpable desire for revisionist wish-fulfillment 57 years after her death speaks volumes about her continued relevance as an ideological lightning rod. Dogs are the undisputed champions of loyalty and love, and it will always be painful to accept that Laika’s blind trust in her masters was betrayed. At the same time, reaching the Moon is the most spectacular achievement in human history, and it would likely never have been done without sacrificing the lives of dozens of animal and human astronauts alike. The fact that a humble stray dog continues to emblematize this struggle is simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming. Laika will never come home. But the dreams, ideas, and controversies she inspired are here to stay.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | First dog in space died within hours Monday, 28 October, 2002, 10:34 GMT First dog in space died within hours By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor The dog Laika, the first living creature to orbit the Earth, did not live nearly as long as Soviet officials led the world to believe. The animal, launched on a one-way trip on board Sputnik 2 in November 1957, was said to have died painlessly in orbit about a week after blast-off. Now, it has been revealed she died from overheating and panic just a few hours after the mission started. The new evidence was presented at the recent World Space Congress in Houston, Texas, US, by Dimitri Malashenkov of the Institute for Biological Problems in Moscow. Noted space historian Sven Grahn told BBC News Online that the new information was surprising and significant as it ended more than 40 years of speculation about Laika's fate. Space pioneer Laika's mission on board Sputnik 2 stunned the world. Sputnik 1, the world's first satellite, had been launched less than one month before.

Laika had been a stray It was a metal sphere weighing about 18 kg (40 lbs) and was far heavier than anything the United States was contemplating launching. An astonished world witnessed the launch of Sputnik 2 weighing 113 kg (250 lbs) and carrying the first living thing to go into orbit - the dog Laika. The animal had been a stray wandering the streets of Moscow when she was captured and prepared for a space mission. Shortly after launch the Soviets said that Laika was not destined to return alive and would die in space. The statement caused outrage to many observers. Racing pulse Dr Malashenkov has now revealed several new details about Laika's mission, such as her food being in jelly form and that she was chained to prevent her turning around. There was a carbon dioxide absorbing device in the cabin to prevent the accumulation of this toxic gas, as well as an oxygen generator. A fan was automatically activated to keep the dog cool when the capsule's temperature exceeded 15 deg Celsius. According to Dr Malashenkov, a great deal of work had to be done to adapt a group of dogs to the conditions in the tight cabin of Sputnik 2.

They were kept in gradually smaller cages for periods up to 15-20 days. Three dogs were trained for the Sputnik 2 flight: Albina, Laika and Mushka. Albina was the first "backup", having flown twice on a high-altitude rocket. Mushka was used to test instrumentation and life support. Death in space Medical sensors placed on Laika indicated that during launch her pulse rate went up by a factor of three above its resting level. At the start of weightlessness, her pulse rate decreased. It took three times longer than after a centrifuge ride on the ground to return Laika's heartbeat to pre-launch values, an indication of the stress she was suffering. Dr Malashenkov also revealed how Laika died. Telemetry from the Sputnik 2 capsule showed that the temperature and humidity increased after the start of the mission. After five to seven hours into the flight, no lifesigns were being received from Laika. By the fourth orbit it was apparent that Laika had died from overheating and stress. Previously, it has been thought that Laika survived at least four days in space and perhaps even a week when Sputnik's transmitters failed.

Despite surviving for just a few hours, Laika's place in space history is assured and the information she provided proved that a living organism could tolerate a long time in weightlessness and paved the way for humans in space. Laika's "coffin" circled the Earth 2,570 times and burned up in the Earth's atmosphere on 4 April 1958. See also: Laika - iSnare Free Encyclopedia Laika For other uses, see Laika (disambiguation) . Laika In 1957, Laika became the first animal launched into orbit, paving the way for human spaceflight . This photograph shows her in a flight harness. Other name(s) Mongrel , possibly part- husky (or part- Samoyed ) and part- terrier Sex First animal to orbit the Earth Owner 5 kg (11 lb ) Laika ( Russian : Лайка [lajka]); c. 1954 – November 3, 1957) was a Soviet space dog who became one of the first animals in space , and the first animal to orbit the Earth.

Laika, a stray dog from the streets of Moscow , was selected to be the occupant of the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 that was launched into outer space on November 3, 1957. Little was known about the impact of spaceflight on living creatures at the time of Laika's mission, and the technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, and therefore Laika's survival was not expected. Some scientists believed humans would be unable to survive the launch or the conditions of outer space, so engineers viewed flights by animals as a necessary precursor to human missions. [1] The experiment aimed to prove that a living passenger could survive being launched into orbit and endure micro-gravity , paving the way for human spaceflight and providing scientists with some of the first data on how living organisms react to spaceflight environments. Laika died within hours from overheating , possibly caused by a failure of the central R-7 sustainer to separate from the payload. The true cause and time of her death were not made public until 2002; instead, it was widely reported that she died when her oxygen ran out on day six or, as the Soviet government initially claimed, she was euthanised prior to oxygen depletion.

On April 11, 2008, Russian officials unveiled a monument to Laika. A small monument in her honour was built near the military research facility in Moscow that prepared Laika's flight to space. It features a dog standing on top of a rocket. She also appears on the Monument to the Conquerors of Space in Moscow. Contents Main article: Sputnik 2 After the success of Sputnik 1 in October 1957, Nikita Khrushchev , the Soviet leader , wanted a spacecraft launched on November 7, 1957, the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution . Construction had already started on a more sophisticated satellite, but it would not be ready until December; this satellite would later become Sputnik 3 . [2] Meeting the November deadline meant building a new craft. Khrushchev specifically wanted his engineers to deliver a "space spectacular", a mission that would repeat the triumph of Sputnik 1, stunning the world with Soviet prowess. Planners settled on an orbital flight with a dog.

Soviet rocket engineers had long intended a canine orbit before attempting human spaceflight; since 1951, they had lofted 12 dogs into sub-orbital space on ballistic flights, working gradually toward an orbital mission set for some time in 1958. To satisfy Khrushchev's demands, they expedited the orbital canine flight for the November launch. [3] According to Russian sources, the official decision to launch Sputnik 2 was made on October 10 or 12, leaving less than four weeks to design and build the spacecraft. [4] Sputnik 2, therefore, was something of a rush job, with most elements of the spacecraft being constructed from rough sketches. Aside from the primary mission of sending a living passenger into space, Sputnik 2 also contained instrumentation for measuring solar radiation and cosmic rays . [2] The craft was equipped with a life-support system consisting of an oxygen generator and devices to avoid oxygen poisoning and to absorb carbon dioxide . A fan, designed to activate whenever the cabin temperature exceeded 15 °C (59 °F), was added to keep the dog cool.

Enough food (in a gelatinous form) was provided for a seven-day flight, and the dog was fitted with a bag to collect waste. A harness was designed to be fitted to the dog, and there were chains to restrict her movements to standing, sitting, or lying down; there was no room to turn around in the cabin. An electrocardiogram monitored heart rate and further instrumentation tracked respiration rate, maximum arterial pressure, and the dog's movements. [5] [6] Training Laika was found as a stray wandering the streets of Moscow . Soviet scientists chose to use Moscow strays since they assumed that such animals had already learned to endure conditions of extreme cold and hunger. [3] This specimen was an eleven-pound [7] mongrel female, approximately three years old. Another account reported that she weighed about 6 kg (13 lb). Soviet personnel gave her several names and nicknames, among them Kudryavka (Russian for Little Curly), Zhuchka (Little Bug), and Limonchik (Little Lemon). Laika, the Russian name for several breeds of dogs similar to the husky , was the name popularized around the world.

The American press dubbed her Muttnik ( mutt + suffix -nik ) as a pun on Sputnik , [8] or referred to her as Curly. [9] Her true pedigree is unknown, although it is generally accepted that she was part husky or other Nordic breed, and possibly part terrier . [3] NASA refers to Laika as a "part- Samoyed terrier." [10] A Russian magazine described her temperament as phlegmatic , saying that she did not quarrel with other dogs. [7] Vladimir Yazdovsky , who led the program of test dogs used on rockets, in a later publication wrote that “Laika was quiet and charming”. [11] The Soviet Union and United States had previously sent animals only on sub-orbital flights. [12] Three dogs were trained for the Sputnik 2 flight: Albina , Mushka , and Laika. [13] Soviet space-life scientists Vladimir Yazdovsky and Oleg Gazenko trained the dogs. [14] To adapt the dogs to the confines of the tiny cabin of Sputnik 2, they were kept in progressively smaller cages for periods of up to 20 days.

The extensive close confinement caused them to stop urinating or defecating, made them restless, and caused their general condition to deteriorate. Laxatives did not improve their condition, and the researchers found that only long periods of training proved effective. The dogs were placed in centrifuges that simulated the acceleration of a rocket launch and were placed in machines that simulated the noises of the spacecraft. This caused their pulses to double and their blood pressure to increase by 30–65 torr . The dogs were trained to eat a special high-nutrition gel that would be their food in space. [6] Before the launch, one of the scientists took Laika home to play with his children. In a book chronicling the story of Soviet space medicine, Dr. Vladimir Yazdovsky wrote, "Laika was quiet and charming...I wanted to do something nice for her: She had so little time left to live." [15] Preflight preparations Vladimir Yazdovsky made the final selection of dogs and their designated roles. Laika was to be the "flight dog"—a sacrifice to science on a one-way mission to space.

[16] Albina, who had already flown twice on a high-altitude test rocket , was to act as Laika's backup. The third dog Mushka was a " control dog "—she was to stay on the ground and be used to test instrumentation and life support . [6] [12] Before leaving for the Baikonur Cosmodrome , Yazdovsky and Gazenko conducted surgery on the dogs - they routed the cables from the transmitters to the sensors that would measure breathing, pulse, and blood pressure. [17] Because the existing airstrip at Turatam near the cosmodrome was small, the dogs and crew had to be first flown aboard a Tu-104 plane to Tashkent . From there, a smaller and lighter Il-14 plane took them to Turatam. Training of dogs continued upon arrival; one after another they were placed in the capsules to get familiar with the feeding system. [16] According to a NASA document, Laika was placed in the capsule of the satellite on October 31, 1957—three days before the start of the mission.

[6] At that time of year, the temperatures at the launch site were extremely cold, and a hose connected to a heater was used to keep her container warm. Two assistants were assigned to keep a constant watch on Laika before launch. Just prior to liftoff on November 3, 1957, from Baikonur Cosmodrome , Laika's fur was sponged in a weak alcohol solution and carefully groomed, while iodine was painted onto the areas where sensors would be placed to monitor her bodily functions. [18] One of the technicians preparing the capsule before final liftoff stated that "after placing Laika in the container and before closing the hatch, we kissed her nose and wished her bon voyage, knowing that she would not survive the flight." [16] Voyage Laika travelled on Sputnik 2 (model shown) The exact time of the liftoff varies from source to source and is mentioned as 05:30:42 Moscow Time or 07:22 Moscow Time. [16] At peak acceleration Laika's respiration increased to between three and four times the pre-launch rate.

[6] The sensors showed her heart rate was 103 beats/min before launch and increased to 240 beats/min during the early acceleration. After reaching orbit, Sputnik 2's nose cone was jettisoned successfully; however the "Block A" core did not separate as planned, preventing the thermal control system from operating correctly. Some of the thermal insulation tore loose, raising the cabin temperature to 40 °C (104 °F). [10] After three hours of weightlessness , Laika's pulse rate had settled back to 102 beats/min, [19] three times longer than it had taken during earlier ground tests, an indication of the stress she was under. The early telemetry indicated that Laika was agitated but eating her food. [10] After approximately five to seven hours into the flight, no further signs of life were received from the spacecraft. [6] The Soviet scientists had planned to euthanize Laika with a poisoned serving of food. For many years, the Soviet Union gave conflicting statements that she had died either from asphyxia , [20] when the batteries failed, or that she had been euthanized.

Many rumors circulated about the exact manner of her death. In 1999, several Russian sources reported that Laika had died when the cabin overheated on the fourth orbit. [4] In October 2002, Dimitri Malashenkov, one of the scientists behind the Sputnik 2 mission, revealed that Laika had died by the fourth circuit of flight from overheating. According to a paper he presented to the World Space Congress in Houston , Texas , "It turned out that it was practically impossible to create a reliable temperature control system in such limited time constraints." [5] Over five months later, after 2,570 orbits, Sputnik 2—including Laika's remains—disintegrated during re-entry on April 14, 1958. [21] Ethics of animal testing NASA named this soil target on Mars after Laika during the Mars Exploration Rover mission. Due to the overshadowing issue of the Soviet vs. U.S. Space Race , the ethical issues raised by this experiment went largely unaddressed for some time.

As newspaper clippings from 1957 show, the press was initially focused on reporting the political perspective, while the health and retrieval—or lack thereof—of Laika only became an issue later. [22] Sputnik 2 was not designed to be retrievable, and Laika had always been intended to die. [4] The mission sparked a debate across the globe on the mistreatment of animals and animal testing in general to advance science. [14] In the United Kingdom , the National Canine Defence League called on all dog owners to observe a minute's silence, while the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) received protests even before Radio Moscow had finished announcing the launch. Animal rights groups at the time called on members of the public to protest at Soviet embassies. [23] Others demonstrated outside the United Nations in New York; [14] nevertheless, laboratory researchers in the U.S . offered some support for the Soviets, at least before the news of Laika's death. [14] [24] In the Soviet Union, there was less controversy.

Neither the media, books in the following years, nor the public openly questioned the decision to send a dog into space. In 1998, after the collapse of the Soviet regime, Oleg Gazenko , one of the scientists responsible for sending Laika into space, expressed regret for allowing her to die: Work with animals is a source of suffering to all of us. We treat them like babies who cannot speak. The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We shouldn't have done it ... We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog. [21] [22] In other Warsaw Pact countries, open criticism of the Soviet space program was difficult because of political censorship, but there were notable cases of criticism in Polish scientific circles. A Polish scientific periodical, "Kto, Kiedy, Dlaczego" ("Who, When, Why"), published in 1958, discussed the mission of Sputnik 2.

In the periodical's section dedicated to astronautics, Krzysztof Boruń described the Sputnik 2 mission as "regrettable" and criticized not bringing Laika back to Earth alive as "undoubtedly a great loss for science". [25] Legacy Laika is memorialized in the form of a statue and plaque at Star City, Russia , the Russian Cosmonaut training facility. [26] Created in 1997, Laika is positioned behind the cosmonauts with her ears erect. [26] The Monument to the Conquerors of Space , constructed in 1964, also includes Laika. [27] On April 11, 2008 at the military research facility where staff had been responsible for readying Laika for the flight, officials unveiled a monument of her poised on top of a space rocket. [1] Future space missions carrying dogs would be designed to be recovered.

Four other dogs died in Soviet space missions: Bars and Lisichka were killed when their R-7 rocket exploded shortly after launch on July 28, 1960; [28] Pchyolka and Mushka died when Korabl-Sputnik 3 was purposely destroyed with an explosive charge to prevent foreign powers from inspecting the capsule after a wayward atmospheric reentry trajectory on December 1, 1960. [29] See also Laika the Cosmonaut Dog: USSR sends first living creature into orbit Heritage Images / Getty Images Laika, Russian cosmonaut dog, in 1957. Nov. 3, 1957: The Soviet Union sends the first living creature into orbit It was a Space Race victory that would have broken Sarah McLachlan’s heart . On this day, Nov. 3, in 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first-ever living animal into orbit: a dog named Laika. The flight was meant to test the safety of space travel for humans, but it was a guaranteed suicide mission for the dog, since technology hadn’t advanced as far as the return trip.

Laika was a stray, picked up from the Moscow streets just over a week before the rocket was set to launch. She was promoted to cosmonaut based partly on her size (small) and demeanor (calm), according to the Associated Press. All of the 36 dogs the Soviets sent into space — before Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth — were strays, chosen for their scrappiness . (Other dogs had gone into space before Laika, but only for sub-orbital launches.) The mission was another in a series of coups for the Soviet Union, which was then leading the way in space exploration while the United States lagged. Just a month earlier, they had launched Sputnik, the world’s first satellite . When Laika’s vessel, Sputnik 2, shot into orbit, the U.S. fell even further behind. News media alternated between mockery and pity for the dog sent into space.

According to a 1957 TIME report on how the press was covering the event, “headlines yelped such barbaric new words as pupnik and pooch-nik, sputpup and woofnik,” before ultimately settling on “Muttnik.” “The Chicago American noted: ‘The Russian sputpup isn’t the first dog in the sky. That honor belongs to the dog star. But we’re getting too Sirius,’” the piece adds. Other headline-writers treated Laika with more compassion. According to another story in the same issue , the Brits were especially full of feeling for the dog — and outrage toward the Russians. “THE DOG WILL DIE, WE CAN’T SAVE IT, wailed London’s mass-minded Daily Mirror,” the story declares. The Soviet embassy in London was forced to switch from celebration mode to damage control. “The Russians love dogs,” a Soviet official protested, per TIME. “This has been done not for the sake of cruelty but for the benefit of humanity.” Nearly a half-century later, Russian officials found themselves handling PR fallout once again after it was revealed that reports of Laika’s humane death were greatly exaggerated.

Although they had long insisted that Laika expired painlessly after about a week in orbit, an official with Moscow’s Institute for Biological Problems leaked the true story in 2002: She died within hours of takeoff from panic and overheating, according to the BBC. Sputnik 2 continued to orbit the Earth for five months, then burned up when it reentered the atmosphere in April 1958. One of Laika’s human counterparts in the Soviet space program recalled her as a good dog. He even brought her home to play with his children before she began her space odyssey. “Laika was quiet and charming,” Dr. Vladimir Yazdovsky wrote in a book about Soviet space medicine, as quoted by the AP .

“I wanted to do something nice for her: She had so little time left to live.” Read TIME’s 1957 take on Laika’s launch, here in the archives: The She-Hound of Heaven November 3, 1957: Laika the space dog becomes first living creature in orbit - BT November 3, 1957: Laika the space dog becomes first living creature in orbit A stray dog called Laika became the first living thing in space when she orbited the earth in the Soviet Sputnik 2 satellite - but lived for only minutes after launch. Print this story A stray dog called Laika became the first living creature launched into orbit – and tragically died – on this day in 1957. Launched at the height of the Russian-American Space Race, Sputnik 2 was a rushed Soviet space mission which came less than a month after the successful launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite. Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev wanted his engineers to follow Sputnik 1 with a "space spectacular" – and it was decided that this would be the launch of the first living animal into orbit.

That living animal turned out to be Laika – a three-year-old stray mongrel who was found wandering the streets of Moscow. Soviet scientists believed such dogs would be used to extreme conditions, having suffered severe cold and hunger while living as a stray. Laika was trained along with two other dogs – Albina and Mushka – and was reportedly chosen to be the ‘flight dog’ out of the trio because of her small size and calm demeanour. “Laika was quiet and charming,” one of the Soviet scientists would later write. But it was a guaranteed suicide mission: Laika’s death was expected from the outset, as Sputnik 2 was never designed to be retrievable. Laika was placed in the capsule of Sputnik 2 – where she only had enough room to sit or lie down – on October 31, three days before the launch. One of the technicians involved later said that before closing the hatch they “kissed her nose and wished her bon voyage, knowing that she would not survive the flight”. Sputnik 2 reached orbit and the launch was reported as a success, with the Soviets even claiming that Laika might be parachuted safely back to Earth.

But some of the craft’s thermal insulation tore loose, raising the cabin temperature to 40°C. Medical sensors on Laika showed that during launch, her pulse rate was three times higher than its resting level – and it took three times longer to settle back down than it had done during ground tests. Sacrificed in order to test the safety of space travel for humans, it wasn’t until 2002 that the truth emerged about how Laika died – and how long she had survived. For years, the Soviet Union insisted that Laika had died painlessly after several days in orbit – and it had indeed been the plan to euthanise her with poisoned dog food after a week of testing. But in October 2002, Dimitri Malashenkov, one of the scientists involved in Sputnik 2, told the World Space Congress in Houston that five to seven hours into the flight, Laika’s monitors were showing no signs of life. By the spacecraft’s fourth orbit, it was clear that she had died from overheating and stress. "It turned out that it was practically impossible to create a reliable temperature control system in such limited time constraints," he said.

The two men who trained Laika were Oleg Gazenko and Vladimir Yazdovsky, life-scientists who led the Soviet’s program of sending animals into space. Yazdovsky later revealed that he took Laika home to play with his children the day before launch, explaining: “I wanted to do something nice for her: She had so little time left to live.” And in 1998, following the collapse of the Soviet regime, Gazenko publicly expressed regret over Laika’s death. “Work with animals is a source of suffering to all of us. We treat them like babies who cannot speak,” he said. “The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We shouldn't have done it ... We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog.” Laika the space dog - Did you know? Laika was a mongrel, thought to be part-husky and possibly part-terrier. She was originally named Kudryavka (‘Little Curly’) by the Soviet scientists, but was later renamed Laika, which means ‘Barker’. The American press gave her various nicknames, including ‘Muttnik’ and ‘Pupnik’.

The mission sparked a global debate on animal rights and the ethics of animal testing. Groups protested against the Soviet Union’s actions, and demonstrations took place outside Soviet embassies and the United Nations. People were urged to pray for Laika and observe a minute’s silence to think of her. Her ‘coffin’ Sputnik 2 continued to orbit the Earth for five months after its launch – and her death – burning up when it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere on April 4, 1958. Laika is memorialised in the form of a statue and plaque at Star City, Russia, the Russian Cosmonaut training facility. She has also been commemorated on stamps and in artwork, songs, books and cartoons – and even had a brand of cigarettes named after her. During the 1950s and 1960s, the USSR used at least 57 dogs in orbital and sub-orbital space flights. Four other dogs died in Soviet space missions.

Question: What did the Russian dog Laika become the first animal to do, in 1957?
Answer: Orbit the Earth