"We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog."Īccording to King's account, Laika was a dog "of uncertain heritage - likely part husky, part terrier - but affectionate, patient, and with dark expressive eyes." She liked her handlers, one of whom gave her a kiss on the nose in farewell before they shut the hatch. "The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it," said Oleg Gazenko, the lead scientist in the program that put animals in space. In the book "Space Dogs" by Laurence King, Laika's fate was later regretted. It was a one-way trip, and everyone knew it but Laika. The actual cause of death was probably overheating due to a mechanical malfunction. For many years, program officials insisted that she had been euthanized - presumably by remote control - before her air supply was exhausted. The Soviets were less than forthcoming about Laika's fate. The last dogs to go up were Veterok, which meant "Light Breeze," and Ugolyok, "Coal," in 1966. Strelka had puppies after her return, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev gave one to JFK. Their instant celebrity status got the full state-sanctioned hero treatment, with children's books, cigarette tins, clocks, dishes and all sorts of trinkets bearing their happy likenesses. In 1960, Belka and Strelka were the first dogs to go into orbit and survive. He was swapped out with a dog named Zib, but before you think that's a great name for your next dog, it's the initials of the Russian words "Substitute for Missing Bobik." Bobik was supposed to go up for a suborbital flight the same year, but he ran away a few days before liftoff. The Russians ran a large program of canine cosmonauts, starting with Dezik and Lisa in 1951. The program could launch her up, but it didn't know how to get her down. This would be Laika's capsule - and her coffin. It had a feeding apparatus to provide in-flight liquefied kibble, and employed a hindquarters vacuum to whisk away the waste. Sergei Korolov, head of the Soviet rocket program, had designed a space capsule for a dog, complete with air conditioning. When the Soviets announced the bigger-and-better Sputnik II a month later, they lapped NASA again, especially since this one would carry a passenger. Just a month earlier, it had launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, and Americans were a bit unnerved by the thought of a Russian-built sphere racing overhead, bleeping in triumph. 3, 1957, this mild-tempered mutt entered the history books and the hearts of millions, when she blasted off from a Russian rocket base and orbited the Earth - the first living being to accomplish this feat.Īt the time, the Soviet space program was the envy of the rest of the world. She didn't have a name when they found her on the streets of Moscow, but she became known as Laika, which means "barker." On Nov.
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