SpaceViews November 1997: Articles Sputnik 2: The First Animal in Orbit by Andrew J. LePage The launching of Sputnik on the night of October 4, 1957 was virtually a total success. The only major malfunction was in the system that evenly empties the propellant tanks in the core and four boosters of the 8K71PS (also known as the SL-1 in the West) version of the R-7 ICBM (which was designated the SS-6 or Sapwood by NATO) that launched Sputnik. This system's failure caused the core's RD-107 engine to shut down a second earlier than intended because of excessive kerosene fuel consumption. This resulted in the apogee of Sputnik being 80 kilometers (50 miles) lower than originally planned but it still made it into a stable orbit nonetheless. The 83.6 kilogram (184 pound) satellite continued to transmit for the next three weeks before its batteries finally gave out.

Due to the ever present atmospheric drag, the empty 7.5 metric ton (16,500 pound) Blok A core of the launch vehicle fell from orbit on December 1, 1957 followed by the now-silent Sputnik on January 4, 1958. The night that Sputnik was launched, nobody could have predicted what impact it would have on the world. According to Nikita Krushchev's own memoirs, he was informed of the successful launch by phone, congratulated the group of engineers and scientists involved and simply went to bed. The next morning's edition of Pravda published an exceptionally low-key TASS press release giving basic information about the launch and the satellite. In the West, however, the news of the launch had an incredible impact. Despite years of largely ignored public statements by Soviet authorities of their intent to launch an Earth satellite, the West was caught totally off guard. Between the radio transmissions and visual sightings of the satellite and the spent Blok A core, people around the world had ample opportunity to personally witness this trailblazer of the Space Age.

The fact that Sputnik weighed substantially more than the American's planned Vanguard satellite also was noted and added to the West's fears. The Soviet propaganda machine immediately realized the true value of the Sputnik launch and quickly put it to good use. Unlike the initial news of the launch, news of the world's reaction to Sputnik made the headlines and dominated the front page of the October 6 issue of Pravda. Sputnik 2 is Approved Krushchev also quickly realized the immense propaganda value of Sputnik. Krushchev totally bypassed the existing chain of command and consulted directly with Korolev to determine what other space spectaculars could be mounted by the OKB-1 design bureau. Additional satellite launches were immediately authorized and detailed studies of lunar probes and manned satellites began in earnest. It was also decided that the next launch, which would be timed to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the Revolution on November 6, 1957, would carry a dog into earth orbit.

This decision set the stage for the Soviet's long standing practice of tying major space missions to important political events to enhance their propaganda value Korolev's team had been seriously studying such a satellite proposal for at least the past year and work had progressed quite far. In 1951 and 1952 six Soviet copies of the German V-2 rocket, known as the R-1, had been launched to high altitudes with dogs on board in order to study the effects of rocket flight and weightlessness on their passengers. A second series of flights in 1955 and 1956 used the more advanced R-1D and R-1E geophysical rockets. A total of twelve dogs were lofted to the edge of space with some of the canine cosmonauts making two flights during the course of this program. Starting in May of 1957 another three-year long program to launch dogs to altitudes of 200 to 212 kilometers (124 to 132 miles) had begun this time using the much more powerful R-2A rocket.

The next satellite, designated Object PS-2, would build on this experience and would compliment the existing ballistic rocket experiment program. Despite the advance state of preparation, an immense amount of work was still required to meet Krushchev's mandate. On October 11 everyone involved with the satellite project was called back from the much deserved vacations they had taken after the Sputnik launch to quickly prepare for the next mission. As Sputnik proved, the Soviets obviously had the means to launch a satellite but they still did not have the technology to successfully return a payload from Earth orbit. As a result, recovering the PS-2's canine passenger was not an option as it had been with the ballistic test flights. With this "engineering compromise", the dog could be carried in a relatively simple pressurized cabin similar to those used in the ballistic rocket flights. Like Object PS, the Object PS-2 would be an unstabilized satellite without any complicated attitude control system thus further simplifying the new satellite's development. While canine cabin designs had be studied and flown on short ballistic flights, modifications to this hardware were required to extend the life of the onboard systems and keep the passenger alive for little over a week of flight instead of just for a few minutes.

A food dispenser was included to supply the dog with a balanced diet of food and water in a gelatinized form. A much more advanced air regeneration system to maintain proper oxygen levels in the cabin was developed for the flight. The padded cabin interior was quite cramped but there was enough room for its canine passenger to lay down, sit, or stand. Attached to this cabin was a modified version of the backup Object PS satellite. Instead of a rudimentary radio transmitter and telemetry system, this sphere carried the much more sophisticated Tral-D telemetry system that was being developed for Object D. This new system had to be pressed into service for this flight to handle the large volume of engineering and bio-telemetry. In order to conserve its batteries, Tral-D was programmed to transmit data for only 15 minutes during each orbit. A pair of spectrophotometers was also carried to study solar ultraviolet and cosmic soft X-ray emissions. Finally Object PS-2 was equipped with a slow-scan television camera to observe its passenger. This system was capable of transmitting ten 100-line video frames per second back to the ground.

All together Object PS-2 was roughly conical in shape with a height of 4 meters (13 feet) and a base diameter of 2 meters (7 feet). With a total mass of 508.3 kilograms (1,119 pounds), it was six times more massive than the original Sputnik satellite, Object PS. The dog chosen to ride Object PS-2 into orbit was a six kilogram (13 pound) part-Samoyed terrier mongrel female who, like many earlier space dogs, was "recruited" from the streets of Moscow. Named Kudryavka (Little Curly) by her trainers, she was officially renamed Laika (Barker) after her breed. Dogs of this breed were ideal for such flights due to their small size and even temperament. Strays from the Moscow streets were chosen since they were generally strong and could endure the hardships of hunger and extreme cold. In case Laika was not fit to make the flight, she had a backup named Albina. A third dog, named Mukha, was to serve as part of the ground test team but she was removed after she would not eat properly.

Since the 8A91 satellite launch vehicle (also known as the SL-2) version of the R-7 under development to launch Object D was still not available, Object PS-2 would be sent into orbit using the same stripped-down version of the R-7 ICBM that launched Sputnik designated 8K71PS. This would turn out to be the last flight of this interim satellite launch vehicle. The new satellite also required a new and larger conical shroud to protect it during its ascent into orbit. A separation system under development also had to be hastily finished so that Object PS-2 would be released from the R-7 core once in orbit. On October 18, 1957 8K71PS serial number M1-2PS arrived at Tashkent 50's NIIP-5 Test Range in Soviet Kazakhstan (which later became the Baikonur Cosmodrome) and final integration of the rocket stages and satellite payload began. The Mission and Its Impact Before launch, Laika was carefully groomed by attendants and electrodes were attached to her body to monitor her respiration and heartbeat . A rubber bag was also strapped to her hind quarters to collect waste.

Finally she was fitted with a special harness and secured inside the cabin of Object PS-2. On the morning of November 3, 1957, just three days prior to the Revolution anniversary, Object PS-2 (now designated Sputnik 2) was successfully placed into a 225 by 1,671 kilometer (140 by 1039 mile) orbit inclined 65.3 degrees to the equator with a period of 103.75 minutes. While Sputnik 2 successfully made it into Earth orbit, the flight was not without problems. The nose cone was jettisoned after reaching orbit as planned but Object PS-2 failed to cut itself loose from the spent Blok A core of its 8K71PS launch vehicle. As a result, the thermal regulation system could not operate properly. Because of this and some thermal insulation that was ripped away from the payload (presumably when the nosecone separated), the temperatures inside the cabin quickly soared to as high as 40 C (104 F). The dog's vital signs indicated that she was frightened but had survived the trip to orbit.

Despite the problems, a successful launch was announced by Soviet authorities. With the announcement of the launch of Sputnik 2 only a month after Sputnik 1, the concerns of the public in the West were heightened even further. While the design and capabilities of the launch vehicle were still unknown, the much greater mass of this new satellite indicated that the Soviet Union's rockets were much more powerful than their American counterparts. Soviet statements that they possessed an operational ICBM could no longer be ignored. Obviously the capabilities of the Soviet's new missiles were a grave threat to the security of the West. As time went on this perception lead to the "Missile Gap" issue of the 1960 presidential election that John F. Kennedy won. The significance of the fact that this satellite carried an animal was not lost to those in the West. While there were animal rights activists who expressed concern about the well being and safe return of Laika, her launch into orbit demonstrated that the Soviet Union was quite serious about space exploration and, in the words of nervous American politicians, in seizing the high ground.

Originally the Sputnik 2 mission was to last for about ten days after which, contrary to past rumors, Laika would die from asphyxiation. The problems with controlling the cabin temperature, however, shortened Laika's life significantly. Readings telemetered to the ground during the hours after launch indicated that she was eating but that she was agitated and barking. When exactly Laika perished has still not been revealed but she likely succumbed to heat exhaustion during the first couple of days of flight. Sputnik 2 itself continued to transmit until a week after its launch. The now-inert Sputnik 2 and the spent core of the R-7 launch vehicle remained in Earth orbit for a total of 162 days with reentry coming on April 14, 1958. While the historic flight of Sputnik 2 was not a total success, it did prove that extended periods of weightlessness were survivable and thus opened the way for the human exploration of space. More Information This article is the second in a series commemorating the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Space Age.

The first article, "Sputnik: The First Man Made Earth Satellite" can be found in the October 1997 issue of SpaceViews. Bibliography Colin Burgess, "Dogs Who Rode Rockets", Spaceflight, Vol. 38, No. 12, pp. 421-423, December 1996 Sven Grahn, "Sputnik 2 - Was It Really Built in Less Than a Month?", , Posted October 16, 1997 James Harford, Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997 Timothy Varfolomeyev, "Sputnik Era Launches", Spaceflight, Vol. 39, No. 10, pp. 331-332, October 1997 Raketno-Kosmichekaya Korporatsiya Energia Imeni S.P.

Koroleva 1946-1996 (in Russian), RKK Energia, 1996 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 Space Today Online - Animals - Dogs in Space MONKEYS AND OTHER ANIMALS IN SPACE » The first men and women who traveled in space — in the 1960s — depended on the sacrifices of other animals that gave their lives for the advancement of human knoweldge about the conditions in outer space beyond this planet's protective ozone layer, about the effects of weightlessness on living organisms, and about the effects of stress on behavior. Preparations for human space activities depended on the ability of animals that flew during and after the 1940s to survive and thrive. Let's look at Russia's space dogs first, then the other animals in space . Near the end of the 1950s, the U.S.S.R. was preparing to send a dog into orbit above Earth. The Soviets used nine so-called Space Dogs to test spacesuits in the unpressurized cabins of spaceflight capsules. For practice suborbital flights , the dogs Albina and Tsyganka were blasted upward to the edge of Earth's atmosphere at an altitude of 53 miles where they were ejected to ride safely down to Earth in their ejection seats.

Subsequent suborbital flights by the space dogs reached altitudes as high as 300 miles. Then came the stunning 1957 launches of Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 to orbit. What is a suborbital flight? » Laika and Sputnik 2 Laika inside Sputnik 2 [Tass News Agency photo via Russian Space Agency] Scientists in the Soviet Union were sure that organisms from Earth could live in space. To demonstrate that, they sent the world's second artificial space satellite — Sputnik 2 — to space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on November 3, 1957. On board was a live mongrel dog named Laika (Barker in Russian) on a life-support system. Laika also was known as Kudryavka (Little Curly in Russian). The American press nicknamed the dog Muttnik. While other animals had made suborbital flights, Laika was the first animal to go into orbit. She suffered no ill effects while she was alive in an orbit at an altitude near 2,000 miles.

Laika had been a stray dog — mostly a Siberian husky and around three years old — rounded up from the Moscow streets and trained for spaceflight. She was carried aloft in a capsule which remained attached to the converted SS-6 intercontinental ballistic missile which rocketed her to orbit. The 1,120-lb. Sputnik 2 was outfitted with scientific gauges, life-support systems, and padded walls, but was not designed for recovery. Laika was supported inside the satellite by a harness that allowed some movement and access to food and water. Electrodes transmitted vital signs including heartbeat, blood pressure and breathing rate. The American press nicknamed the dog Muttnik. She captured the hearts of people around the world as the batteries that operated her life-support system ran down and the capsule air ran out. Life slipped away from Laika a few days into her journey. Later, Sputnik 2 fell into the atmosphere and burned on April 14, 1958. Today, Laika again captures the hearts of people with a monument to her erected 40 years after her spaceflight by the Russians to honor fallen cosmonauts at Star City outside Moscow.

The likeness of Laika can be seen peeping out from behind the cosmonauts in the monument. Laika also is remembered on a plaque at the Moscow research center where she was trained. Verterok or Veterok (Little Wind) Ugolyok or Ugolek (Little Piece of Coal) Five of the dogs died in flight: Laika, Bars, Lisichka, Pchelka, and Mushka. Here are their stories: Bars and Lisichka On July 28, 1960 a test flight related to the Vostok spacecraft was launched. The booster exploded during launch and the dogs Bars (Panther or Lynx) and Lisichka ( Little Fox) on board the spacecraft were killed. Russian dogs Strelka and Belka went into space aboard Sputnik 5 and returned healthy [NASA Archive] Memorial Museum of Astronautics » Belka and Strelka Korabl-Sputnik-2 (Spaceship Satellite-2), also known as Sputnik 5, was launched on August 19, 1960. On board were the dogs Belka ( Squirrel) and Strelka (Little Arrow).

Also on board were 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants. After a day in orbit, the spacecraft's retrorocket was fired and the landing capsule and the dogs were safely recovered. They were the first living animals to survive orbital flight. Strelka later gave birth to six puppies, one of which was given to Caroline Kennedy, daughter of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, by Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. Today, the bodies of Strelka and Belka remain preserved at the Memorial Museum of Astronautics in Moscow. Belka sits in a glass case in the museum while Strelka is part of a traveling exhibit that has visited the U.S., China, Australia, Israel and other countries. Pchelka and Mushka Space dogs Pchelka (Little Bee) and Mushka (Little Fly) were launched on December 1, 1960 aboard Korabl-Sputnik-3, also known as Sputnik 6. This spacecraft also spent a day in orbit . However, the retrofire burn was not performed with the correct orientation and the capsule reentered the atmosphere at too steep an angle and was destroyed.

Damka and Krasavka On December 22, 1960 another Korabl Sputnik was launched carrying the dogs Damka (Little Lady) and Krasavka (Beauty). The booster's upper rocket stage failed and the launch was aborted. The dogs were safely recovered after their unplanned suborbital flight. Kosmos 110 flight record dogs Verterok and Ugolyok Chernushka and Sputnik 9 Korabl-Sputnik-4, also known as Sputnik 9 was launched on March 9, 1961 and carried the black dog Chernushka (Blackie) on a one orbit mission. Also onboard the spacecraft was a dummy cosmonaut, mice and a guinea pig. Zvezdochka and Sputnik 10 Korabl-Sputnik-5, also known as Sputnik 10 was launched on March 25, 1961 and carried the dog Zvezdochka (Little Star) and a dummy cosmonaut — a wooden mannequin — on a one orbit mission. This final rehearsal for the Vostok 1 flight was successful.

Days later, Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space on April 12, 1961, spending 108 minutes orbiting above Earth in his Vostok 1 capsule. Verterok and Ugolyok The biosatellite Kosmos 110 (also known as Voskhod 3) was launched on February 22, 1966 and carried the dogs Verterok or Veterok (Little Wind) and Ugolyok or Ugolek (Little Piece of Coal). The dogs were to be observed in orbit for 23 days via video transmission and biomedical telemetry. Their spacecraft landed on March 16, 1966 after a 22 day flight. Theirs still stands as the canine spaceflight record and was not surpassed by humans until the flight of Skylab 2 in June 1974. Monkeys and Other Animals A variety of large and small animals — not just dogs — have been flown to space for science experiments in orbit. Fruit flies were launched on a V2 rocket from White Sands, New Mexico, to the edge of space in July 1946 to study the effects of high-altitude radiation.

The rocket reached an altitude of about 100 miles. How high is high? » Where does space begin? » Monkeys named Albert The very first primates ever fired to an altitude near space were the monkeys Albert 1 and Albert 2. They died in 1949 in the nose cones of captured German V-2 rockets during U.S. launch tests. The V-2 rockets carried Air Force Aero Medical Laboratory monkeys named Albert I, II, III, and IV high in the atmosphere to see how they might withstand space conditions. All of the monkeys survived the upward trip, but were killed when parachutes failed to open and the nose cones impacted the ground. Yorick and 11 Mice A monkey and mice died in 1951 when their parachute failed to open after the the U.S. Air Force launched an Aerobee rocket from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. Later that year — on September 20 — the U.S. Air Force launched the first animal flight near space that ended with a live occupant. The nosecone on the Aerobee rocket carried a monkey named Yorick and 11 mice to a height of 45 miles.

Space is said to began at 50 miles. When the animals were recovered alive, it went down in the record book as the first successful flight near space for living creatures. The last Air Force launch of an Aerobee rocket on — May 22, 1952 — carried two mice named Mildred and Albert, and two Phillipine monkeys named Patricia and Mike. Scientists watched the signal from a video camera in the nosecone to see the effects of acceleration, weightlessness and deceleration as the monkeys and mice flew to an altitude of 36 miles. To measure effects of 2,000-mile-per-hour acceleration, Mike was strapped in a prone position and Patricia was supported upright in a seated position. The mice were seen floating in a holding drum as they encountered weightlessness. The animals survived the parachute landing. Patricia and Mike lived the rest of their lives at the National Zoological Park at Washington, D.C. Gordo the Squirrel Monkey America turned away from preparing for human space flight for half a decade. In those years before NASA, the military focused on missiles as weapons. Laika re-focused the nation's attention on spaceflight. A year after her launch, the U.S.

Army launched a squirrel monkey named Gordo aboard a Jupiter AM-13 booster on a suborbital flight on December 13, 1958. The monkey completed the flight up and down safely. However, during his recovery, a flotation device in the rocketºs nose cone failed and Gordo died. Monkeys Able and Baker The U.S. launched two monkeys six months later — a female rhesus named Able and a female squirrel monkey named Baker — aboard a Jupiter AM-18 rocket suborbital flight in 1959. The monkeys flew to an altitude of 300 miles up at speeds over 10,000 mph. The monkeys were weightless for nine minutes. They were recovered successfully. Afterward, sensors that had been used to transmit vital signs data were removed in surgery. During the operation, Able died from the anesthetic. Rhesus monkey suited up for Little Joe launch of Mercury capsule [NASA archive] Sam and Miss Sam Mercury capsules atop Little Joe rockets were used to blast the rhesus monkeys Sam and Miss Sam to space. Sam lifted off on December 4, 1959, and traveled 55 miles into space.

He tested a Mercury couch and restraint harness that would be used to protect astronauts during high acceleration periods in manned Mercury flights. Sam was recovered alive in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, by the USS Borie. Back in the lab, he reportedly embraced Miss Sam joyfully. Miss Sam, in turn, journeyed upward in a Mercury capsule on January 21, 1960. However, she flew only to an altitude of nine miles during a 58-minute test of an escape system for future Mercury manned flights. She also was recovered in the Atlantic Ocean, by a Marine helicopter. A Chimpanzee Ham Ham was named in honor of Holloman Aerospace Medical Center, New Mexico, where the chimpanzees lived and also in honor of Holloman commander Lt. Col. Hamilton Blackshear. In training for his suborbital flight to space, the four-year-old chimpanzee practiced with three other chimps pulling levers to receive rewards for correct choices. Eventually, Ham was blasted off inside Mercury capsule number 5 atop a Redstone rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 31, 1961.

His mission was to prove that live animals aboard a spacecraft could carry out their jobs during launch, weightlessness and reentry. Unfortunately, Ham's rocket overshot and boosted the chimp in his capsule to a speed of 5,857 mph. That was 1,457 mph faster than planned, which resulted in Ham experiencing 1.7 more minutes of weightlessness than projected. He was weightless for a total of 6.6 minutes. The excess power also shot the capsule 122 miles off course. Even so, Ham was able to perform his tasks almost perfectly. The Mercury capsule landed far outside the Atlantic Ocean target zone at 12:12 p.m., 60 miles from the nearest recovery ship, the destroyer Ellison. Lying on its side in the water, the capsule was battered by waves. Tears in the landing bag capsized the craft. An open cabin pressure relief valve let sea water in. It was beginning to submerge when Navy rescue helicopter pilots found it. At 2:52 p.m. a helicopter managed to snag the craft and lift it and 800 pounds of sea water out of the ocean.

After dangling all the way to a ship, the capsule was lowered to the deck. Nine minutes later Ham came out in good condition. He happily accepted an apple and half an orange. Ham survived in good condition to retire to the National Zoological Park at Washington, D.C., on April 2, 1963. The success of his Mercury capsule flight led directly to the launch of Alan Shepard on America's first human suborbital flight on May 5, 1961. Enos in Orbit The first non-human primate in orbit was the chimp Enos launched November 29, 1961, in a Mercury capsule in preparation for manned flight. Enos was said to be the first "living being" sent to orbit by the United States. Primates are mammals, such as humans, apes, monkeys and lemurs, having large brains, eyes that look forward with a highly developed sense of vision, flexible hands and feet, and usually opposable thumbs they can bend to help pick up objects. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first primate in orbit when he flew in space in April 1961.

Of course, other primates had been sent almost to space earlier and other animals , the Russian space dogs, had been in orbit before Enos or Gagarin. Enos blasted off atop an Atlas 5 rocket and completed two orbits before being brought down one orbit early because his Mercury capsule was not performing exactly as planned. In even so, Enos successfully performed his jobs in space. After the success of the chimp's flight, John Glenn was launched on February 20, 1962, to become the first American to orbit Earth. Cats in simulated spacesuits [NASA archive] Felix the Cat France launched a black and white stray tomcat of the Paris streets on October 18, 1963, on Veronique AGI sounding rocket No. 47 from the Hammaguir test range in Algeria. Was it a male named Felix. Or a female named Felicette? Whichever, it was the first cat in space as the capsule in the rocket's nose cone separated at 120 miles altitude and descended by parachute. Electrodes in the cat's brain transmitted neurological impulses to a ground station. The cat was recovered.

Another cat flight on October 24, 1963, failed and was not recovered. Flights were directed by France's Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherches de Medecine Aeronautique (CERMA). Biosatellites The U.S. launched a series of biological capsules to investigate the influence of space flight on living organisms. Biosatellite I, launched Dec. 14, 1966, was lost when the retrorocket failed to ignite and it could not land. Biosatellite 2, launched Sept. 7, 1967, was recovered. The scientific payload included 13 biology and radiation experiments exposed to microgravity during 45 hours in Earth orbit. Living things in the biological capsule included insects, frog eggs, microorganisms and plants. The three-day flight was cut short by the threat of a tropical storm in the recovery area and a communication problem between the satellite in orbit and the tracking systems on the ground. Biosatellite 3, launched June 29, 1969, three weeks before the first men were to land on the Moon.

A male pig-tailed monkey (Macaca nemestrina) named Bonnie was the passenger set to orbit in Biosatellite 3 for a month. Unfortunately, Bonnie had to brought down, ill from loss of body fluids, after only 8.8 days. He died shortly after landing on July 7. Russia, cooperating with the U.S. and European nations, has flown a number of biosatellites in orbit, testing different kinds of plants and animals in weightlessness. The biological test flights have carried white Czechoslovakian rats, rhesus monkeys, squirrel monkeys, newts, fruit flies, fish and others. Orbiting Frog Otolith The Orbiting Frog Otolith satellite (OFO-A), launched by the U.S. on Nov. 9, 1970, from Wallops Island, Virginia, on a Scout rocket, carried two bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana). Biologists wanted a better understanding of the effect of microgravity on the otolith, a sensory organ that responds to changes in an animal's orientation within Earth's gravitational field. The Frog Otolith Experiment Package (FOEP) kept the two frogs alive in orbit.

They were housed in a water-filled, self-contained centrifuge which supplied the test acceleration during orbit. The FOEP stayed in orbit for seven days. The satellite was not recovered. Arabella spider on Skylab-3 [NASA archive] Arabella, the Orb Weaver NASA's Skylab 3 space station crew flight on July 28, 1973, carried a student experiment with Arabella, the orb weaving garden spider (Araneus diadematus) for 59.5 days. The spider, which had a distinctive white cross mark on its abdomen, was able to weave the traditional orb web in the near-zero-gravity environment only with practice. Such webs are logarithmic spirals – sometimes incorrectly referred to as concentric circles – of silk threads that are small in the center and larger at the outer area of the web. A spider uses its own sense of its weight to determine the amount of silk to spin into the web, so gravity is important in the construction. The Skylab student experiment observed how microgravity affected Arabella's weight sensing ability. Bion Satellites The U.S.S.R. launched a series of biological capsules to investigate the influence of space flight on living organisms.

The series of Bion satellites was designed to study the effects of radiation and the space environment on biology. The Bion satellite is modified from a Zenit type of spysat. It is lofted to space by a Soyuz rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Bion launches began in 1973. The first Bion carried tortoises, rats, insects, and fungi. Other missions have carried plants, mold, quail eggs, fish, newts, frogs, cells, and seeds. Starting with Bion 6, the missions carried pairs of monkeys. Bion 1/Cosmos 605 launched on Oct. 31, 1973, looked into the influence of space flight on living organisms and tested life-support systems for biological entities. The capsule as recovered. Bion 2/Cosmos 690 launched Oct. 23, 1974, investigated the upper atmosphere and outer space. Bion 3/Cosmos 782 launched Nov. 25, 1975, carried 25 rats and other animals. It was the first time that the United States participated in the Soviet Cosmos Program.

Scientists from France, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. participated in these investigations. Bion 4/Cosmos 936 launched August 3, 1977, carried 30 rats among experiments from the U.S.S.R., the U.S., Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and the German Democratic Republic. The biosatellite was recovered near Kustanay in Central Asia after orbiting for 18.5 days. Bion 5/Cosmos 1129 launched Sept. 25, 1979, carried 37 rats biology experiments in embryo development and radiation medicine from Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the German Democratic Republic, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Experiments included the first attempt to breed rats in space. Bion 6/Cosmos 1514 launched Dec. 14, 1983, carried monkeys named Abrek and Bion and several pregnant rats. It was the first U.S.S.R. orbital flight of a non-human primate.

More than 60 experiments were performed by scientists from Bulgaria, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, France, the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. American scientists conducted three experiments on the primates and another experiment on the rat subjects. The capsule was recovered. Bion 7/Cosmos 1667 launched July 10, 1985, carried monkeys named Verniy and Gordiy. It was the second USSR biosatellite mission with a primate payload. It also featured a large rodent payload. Countries participating in the mission were the USSR, U.S., France, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. The U.S. conducted only a single experiment cardiovascular experiment on one of the two flight monkeys. Bion 8/Cosmos 1887 launched Sept. 29, 1987, carried monkeys named Drema and Erosha, ten rats and other animals. Bion 9/Cosmos 2044 launched Sept. 15, 1989, carried 29 U.S. and U.S.S.R.

life science experiments conducted on two rhesus monkeys, ten rats, fish, amphibians, insects, worms, protozoans, cell cultures and plants. The monkeys were named Zhankonya and Zabiyaka. It was was the seventh Soviet Biosatellite to orbit the Earth with joint U.S./U.S.S.R. experiments. Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Canada, Poland, Britain, Romania, Czechoslovakia and the European Space Agency also participated. Bion 10/Cosmos 2229 launched Dec. 29, 1992, carried monkeys named Ivasha and Krosha. After 12 days in Earth orbit, the capsule was recovered north of the city of Karaganda. This Cosmos 2229 mission also was referred to as Bion 10, because it was the tenth in a series of Soviet/Russian unmanned satellites carrying biological experiments. Bion 11 launched 24 December 1996 carried monkeys named Lalik and Multik.

First Manned Animal Lab in Orbit NASA began a series of shuttle flights carrying live animals to space with the launch of Challenger flight STS-51B on April 28, 1985. Two squirrel monkeys and 24 albino rats were housed in Spacelab, a reusable space laboratory developed for NASA shuttles by the European Space Agency. Known as Spacelab-3, it actually was the second flight of Spacelab. Scientists wanted to see if there were any physical and behavior changes brought about by space flight. The adult male monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) and male rats (Rattus norvegicus) were housed in life-supporting cages. They were not restrained and instrument probes were not implanted in the monkeys. "The two monkeys on Spacelab 3 were purposely not given names. However, if my memory serves me right, they did have numbers which were 385-80 and 3065," according to J.W. Cremin, Spacelab 3 mission manager. During the flight, both monkeys ate less food and were less active in space than on the ground. One monkey adapted quickly to microgravity.

The other exhibited symptoms like the condition astronauts refer to as Space Adaptation Syndrome. That indisposed monkey did not eat and drank little water for four days of flight. On the fifth day, the astronauts hand-fed banana pellets to him and he began to act more like the first monkey. After Challenger returned to Earth on May 5, 1985, the monkeys and rats were healthy and in good condition. Post-flight tissue analyses were not performed on the flight monkeys. That means they were not killed. STS-90 swordtail fish [NASA] In 1990, a Japanese reporter took green tree frogs to the Mir space station. Oyster Toad Fish and Crickets U.S. shuttle Columbia and a crew of seven astronauts launched April 17, 1998, on flight STS-90, a Neurolab mission taking along a menagerie of 170 newborn rats and pregnant mice, 229 tiny swordtail fish, 135 snails, four prehistoric-looking oyster toad fish, and 1,500 cricket eggs and larvae. The animals were in the Spacelab module in Columbia's cargo bay.

The seven astronauts studied how the very-low-gravity environment of near-Earth orbit influenced the animals' brains and central nervous systems. Animals aboard shuttle Columbia's last flight Columbia flight STS-107 was lost with its crew of seven astronauts on February 1, 2003. Much of the science data gathered during 16 days in orbit was lost. However, NASA was able to harvest some experimental results because the astronauts had beamed their data down by radio while still in space. Other experiments were recovered amidst the debris on the ground. Surprisingly, hundreds of worms, known as C. elegans, were found alive. They were the only live experiments found. About the size of a pencil point, the worms have a life cycle of 7-10 days. Those found were four to five generations removed from the original worms sent to space in Columbia to test a synthetic nutrient solution. The shuttle carried other small animals, including silkworms, spiders, carpenter bees, harvester ants, and Japanese killfish. It also carried roses, moss and other plants, as well as bacteria and slime mold. The moss Ceratodon was flown on Columbia to study how gravity affects cell organization.

The moss was sprayed during the flight with a chemical that destroyed its protein fiber. Then formaldehyde was used to preserve the dead moss. Some of the moss was found in the debris. 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 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.

NASA - NSSDCA - Spacecraft - Details NSSDCA/COSPAR ID: 1957-002A Description Sputnik 2 was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit and was the first such biological spacecraft. It was a 4 meter high cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 meters. It contained several compartments for radio transmitters, a telemetry system, a programming unit, a regeneration and temperature control system for the cabin, and scientific instruments. A separate sealed cabin contained the experimental dog Laika. Engineering and biological data were transmitted using the Tral_D telemetry system, which would transmit data to Earth for 15 minutes of each orbit. Two spectrophotometers were on board for measuring solar radiation (ultraviolet and x-ray emissions) and cosmic rays. A television camera was mounted in the passenger compartment to observe Laika. The camera could transmit 100-line video frames at 10 frames/second.

Mission Profile Sputnik 2 was launched on a Sapwood SS-6 8K71PS launch vehicle (essentially a modified R-7 ICBM similar to that used for Sputnik 1) to a 212 x 1660 km orbit with a period of 103.7 minutes. After reaching orbit the nose cone was jettisoned successfully but the Blok A core did not separate as planned. This inhibited the operation of the thermal control system. Additionally some of the thermal insulation tore loose so the interior temperatures reached 40 C. It is believed Laika survived for only about two days instead of the planned ten because of the heat. The orbit of Sputnik 2 decayed and it reentered Earth's atmosphere on 14 April 1958 after 162 days in orbit. Laika The first being to orbit the Earth was a female part-Samoyed terrier originally named Kudryavka (Little Curly) but later renamed Laika (Barker). She weighed about 6 kg. The pressurized cabin on Sputnik 2 allowed enough room for her to lie down or stand and was padded.

An air regeneration system provided oxygen; food and water were dispensed in a gelatinized form. Laika was fitted with a harness, a bag to collect waste, and electrodes to monitor vital signs. The early telemetry indicated Laika was agitated but eating her food. There was no capability of returning a payload safely to Earth at this time, so it was planned that Laika would run out of oxygen after about 10 days of orbiting the Earth. Because of the thermal problems she probably only survived a day or two. The mission provided scientists with the first data on the behavior of a living organism orbiting in the space environment. Spacecraft image courtesy of Alexander Chernov - all rights reserved. Alternate Names Laika: First Animal to Orbit Earth - Puppy Leaks Puppy Leaks You are here: Home / Dog Articles / Laika: First Animal to Orbit Earth Laika: First Animal to Orbit Earth June 26, 2014 By Jen Gabbard 14 Comments A stray dog named Laika became the first animal to orbit Earth in 1957. The Russians chose to work with stray dogs because they were already accustomed to living in harsh environments.

Laika was the lucky candidate, chosen from many other strays due to her good nature. And yes – she’s the reason I named my dog Laika. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957. Aboard was a little dog stray dog named Laika, and she became the first animal to orbit Earth. How a Stray Dog Became the First Mammal to Orbit Earth November 3 1957 Sputnik 2 was launched into space. It’s the second spacecraft launched into Earth’s orbit and the first carrying a live animal. Laika , a dog found wandering the streets in Moscow was on board, she became the first living animal to orbit the Earth. She was chosen from 10 other canine candidates because of her even temperament. After the success of Sputnik 1 the Soviet Union were in a hurry to produce another spacecraft. This was during the great space race between the Soviet Union & the United States. They had already launched the first satellite, Sputnik 1 into space and they wanted their next mission to be even greater.

To go further with Sputnik 2 they decided on a orbital flight with a dog; no living creature larger than a microbe had been launched into space, so the dog would become the first mammal to orbit Earth. They had already put 12 dogs into sub orbital space on ballistic flights. The decision to launch Sputnik 2 was made in early October, giving scientists only 4 weeks to design & build the spacecraft. Preparation For Liftoff Laika practicing for liftoff Laika had been found by scientists as a stray on the streets of Moscow, they figured the strays there would already be conditioned to deal with harsh environments. Laika was a mutt, weighed 12 pounds and was about 3 years old. To get her used to the small confines of Sputnik 2 the scientists kept her in progressively smaller cages for up to 20 days. The close confinement caused her to stop urinating or defecating. Laika was placed in centrifuges that stimulated the acceleration of rocket launch and placed in machines that emulated spacecraft noises. The stressors caused her pulse to double and her blood pressure to greatly increase. The craft had an air regeneration system to provide Laika with oxygen.

She would receive food & water in gelatinized form through a dispenser. Laika had a harness to chain her in place, a bag to collect waste and electrodes to monitor her vital signs. Countdown to Launch Laika was placed into Sputnik 2 three days before it launched. The conditions were cold before the mission began so they used a hose connected to a heater to keep her container warm. Prior to liftoff she was sponged in weak alcohol and groomed, iodine was placed onto the areas of her body that were to be monitored. One of the technicians on the Sputnik 2 project stated “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.” On November 3 1957 Sputnik 2 was launched, it successfully made it into Earth’s orbit. Shortly after reaching orbit one of the cores did not separate correctly, preventing the thermal control mechanism from working properly. Thermal insulation tore lose and the temperature inside the cabin’s interior reached 104 F. During the acceleration Laika’s pulse had increased to 3 times normal.

After 3 hours of weightlessness it settled back down on 102 beats per minute, 3 times longer than it had taken on their preflight tests, proving the amount of stress she was under. After 6 hours of flight no further signs of life were detected. The scientists hadn’t planned for Laika to return. No recovery mission had been planned. They had originally planned on euthanizing her with serving of poisoned food. After the Mission The Soviets gave conflicting reports about how Laika had died. At first they claimed she had been suffocated, years later it’s been revealed that she died from overheating although the exact time of death remains uncertain. Five months after the initial launch Sputnik 2 disintegrated during re-entry on April 14, 1958. Sputnik 2 caused a lot of debate about testing on animals across the globe. There were protests held outside the United Nations and New York. One of the scientists who worked on Sputnik later stated “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.” Western countries saw it as a dog being exploited. To get around this issue, the Soviets canonized her, making her a hero who had sacrificed herself for the greater good of her country. –Damon Murray, author of Soviet Space Dogs Further space missions carrying dogs were designed to be recovered. Laika and other animals who helped space research are now regarded as heroes . The Sputnik Program, History 135 The Sputnik Program Assignment Background Chronology Further Reading Links BACKGROUND The Sputnik Program was a series of five space missions launched by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s. There are a variety of other classes of Soviet spacecraft that are referred to as "Sputniks" by Americans, however only the first five were part of the Soviet Sputnik Program. The first of these spacecraft, Sputnik 1, was the first artificial satellite ever to be launched into orbit, effectively starting the "Space Race" between the United States and the Soviet Union. Ukrainian Sergei P.

Korolev, a rocket designer in the Soviet ICBM program, is widely regarded as the founder of the Soviet space program. In 1944, Korolev had designed the Soviet equivalent to the German V2 missile, the R-1. Several design changes later, in 1957 Korolev's R-7 was created, powerful enough to put a satellite into orbit. As participants in the "International Geophysical Year", the Russians were working on a satellite with a scientific payload, but progress was slow, and there was an urgency to beat the Americans into space. Since the R-7 was ready, Korolev's team designed a barebones satellite, a simple beeping orbiter, which became known as Sputnik 1. Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957. The satellite was 23 inches in diameter and weighed approximately 184 lb. Each of its elliptical orbits around the Earth took about 96 minutes.

Set up to broadcast a beep on 20 and 40 MHz frequencies, its signal was received both by scientists and amateur radio operators worldwide for 22 days until October 26, 1957 when the onboard batteries ran out of charge. Sputnik 1 was also outfitted with instruments to measure the density of the Earth's atmosphere. Calculations based on the last signals received from the satellite and the degradation of its orbit project that Sputnik 1 burned into the atmosphere on January 4, 1958. Some evidence indicates that parts of the spacecraft survived re-entry. Sputnik 2, launched on November 3, 1957 via the R-7 rocket, was the second artificial spacecraft to achieve Earth orbit. This was also the first spacecraft to carry a living creature, a thirteen pound dog named Laika. Built by Korolev and his team in less than one month, Sputnik 2 was a thirteen-foot high cone-shaped structure, the base measuring six and one-half feet, and weighed in at roughly half a ton. Different compartments held different scientific instruments; Laika had her own separate sealed cabin.

Originally reported to have survived 7 days, documents released in 2002 revealed that Laika perished from overheating several hours into the spaceflight due to malfunctions in the thermal control subsystem. As tragic as this seems, the original plan was to euthanize Laika after 10 days with poisoned food, as there was only enough oxygen to last 10 days. There was no re-entry plan. After 162 days on orbit, Sputnik 2 reentered the atmosphere on April 14, 1958. The Sputnik 3 satellite was launched on May 15, 1958 with the intent of studying the ionosphere. This was the satellite that had originally been slated for the first Soviet launch. Sputnik 3, like Sputnik 2, was conical in shape, and weighed about 2,926 lbs. It carried 12 scientific instruments designed to study the pressure and composition of the atmosphere in its upper layers; concentration of charged particles, photons in cosmic rays, heavy nuclei in cosmic rays, magnetic and electrostatic fields, and meteoric particles, as well as measure the temperature in the spacecraft and on its surface.

Due to a failure of its onboard tape recorder, data could only be collected from Sputnik 3 during space to ground radio contacts. Sputnik 4 remained in orbit until April 6, 1960, when the orbit degraded from drag in upper atmosphere and the spacecraft burned into the atmosphere. Sputnik 4 was launched on May 14, 1960, designed to investigate the means for manned space flight. Weighing approximately 3,256 pounds, it contained scientific instruments to study the operation of the life support system and the stresses of flight, including a television system, and a self-sustaining biological cabin with a "dummy" of a man. Sputnik 4 orbited the Earth for four days, then was scheduled to release a re-entry cabin. The cabin released, however retro rockets designed to de-orbit the cabin fired with incorrect attitude data, pushing the cabin further out into space. The capsule eventually re-entered the atmosphere on September 5, 1962, leaving at least one of it's pieces in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, USA.

Due to SOS signals received from the vicinity of Sputnik 4 on November 28, 1960, some sources suggest that this flight was actually manned by a human. Sputnik 5 was launched on August 19, 1960, the first space flight that actually returned living creatures back from space, unharmed. Doing further research on the habitability of space for humans, Sputnik 5 carried two dogs, Belka and Strelka, two rats, forty mice, various plants and a human mannequin "Ivan Ivanovich". Sputnik 5 weighed 10,141 pounds, and returned to the Earth after one day of orbiting on August 20, 1960. The Sputnik Program was followed by the Soviet Vostok Program, which went on to carry the first human into Space. Both Sputnik 4 and 5 are also considered part of the Vostok Program. The Sputnik Program had significant military implications to the world: the ICBM missiles used to launch the Sputnik satellites were also capable of traveling from the Soviet Union to their military targets in less than one hour.

Conventional bombers would take several hours for the same flight. The Soviet's status as a very formidable foe to the United States was cemented and the tensions of the Cold War were heightened. In the late 1950's, the Soviet Union saw itself as the stronger of the superpowers in both the Space Race and the Cold War. While the United States Navy and Air Force were working on their own space missile projects prior to the launch of Sputnik 1, this event spurred the U.S. Government into creating the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in February of 1958, and the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) in July of 1958. The National Science Foundation received almost $100 million more in appropriation funds from the U.S. Congress in 1959 than the previous year. The fear of losing the Space Race also prompted the advancement of the educational system in the United States; Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in 1958. The NDEA boosted funding for both higher education institutions, and elementary/secondary education, with an emphasis on math and physical science.

The International Geophysical Year lasted from July 1, 1957 to December 31, 1958. Both the USA and the USSR were participating in this international scientific event. Although the launch of Sputnik 1 is often cited as the beginning of the Space Race, both countries were already racing to become the first space power. Because the Space Race occurred during the Cold War, secrecy was a necessarily. Due both to the secrecy of these Soviet space missions and disinformation tactics, many facts about the Sputnik satellites are disputable. Many classified documents have since been released to the public, but many secrets have been kept secret. This page is copyright © 2007-12, C.T. Evans and T. Alcorn. For information contact cevans@nvcc.edu

Question: What type of animal was inside Sputnik 2 when launched into orbit in 1957?
Answer: Dog