![]() ![]() ![]() In the Soviet Union, Laika and all the other animals that made space flight possible are remembered as heroes. 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 Apand burned up on reentry. ![]() Malashenkov ended four decades of speculation when he amitted that Laika had died from overheating just hours after the launch. 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. And still, others said she died five to seven hours into the flight from stress and heat. Others said she died four days into the trip when there was an electrical burnout and the interior temperatures rose dramatically. Some said that the plan was for her to live for several days and that her last food allotment was poisoned. Laika dies in spaceĪlthough all agree that Laika made it into orbit, there had long been a question as to how long she lived after that. The de facto plan was for Laika to die in space. 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 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.Īs 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. Sputnik 2 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome (now located in Kazakhstan). She was trained for space travel by being kept in small cages and learning to eat a nutritious gel that would be his food in space. Soviet scientists assumed that a stray dog would have already learned to endure harsh conditions of hunger and cold temperatures. TIL Laika, the first Soviet Space Dog died within hours due to overheating. She was rescued from the streets of Moscow. Laika was a young, mostly-Siberian husky. On board the small satellite was a little dog, the first animal to orbit Earth. The Soviet Union stunned the world on Nov. Report on space exploration at theguardian.The very first living creature to enter orbit There is also a plaque bearing her name at the biomedical research centre where she was trained. Laika became the name of a brand of Soviet cigarette, and a face on a monument at Star City, Moscow. Yuri Gagarin made history aboard Vostok 1 in April 1961. Soviet scientists took note: after their heaven-sent hounds returned to Earth, they bred puppies from Strelka and gave one to Kennedy.Ī human soon followed Laika's lead. President John F Kennedy angrily asked US scientists why the world's first pair of space dogs were called Strelka and Belka rather than Rover and Fido. Strelka and Belka went into orbit in 1960 with 40 mice, two rats and some plants, in what was by then an obvious preparation for a human launch. Laika became the most famous dog in space - US newspapers christened her Muttnik - but she was only the first. NASA refers to Laika as a 'part-Samoyed terrier. She was a mix of either a Siberian Husky or other Nordic breed, and a terrier. She was one of the first animals in space, and the first animal to orbit the Earth. The capsule that became her coffin burned up in the atmosphere in April 1958 after 2,570 orbits. 1954 November 3, 1957) was a Soviet Union space dog. The Russian word laika () is a noun derived from the verb layat' (, to bark), and literally means barker.As the name of a dog variety, it is used not only in Russian cynological literature, but sometimes in other languages as well to refer to all varieties of hunting dogs traditionally kept by the peoples of the northern Russia and adjacent areas. Reason for the dog's death: there was never a plan to get Laika back to Earth. But humidity and temperature gradually increased.Īfter about five hours, the telemetry system began to fail: what happened thereafter can never be known, but Laika probably died, said Dr Dmitry Malashenkov, of Russia's Institute of Biomedical Problems. The animal's name was Laika and died in space. Laika was one of 10 dogs to complete a special space training course, and one of three selected by space scientists: Laika was to be the cosmonaut, Albina her understudy and Mushka the "technological dog" on which ground crew could test the satellite's life support systems.įor the first few hours after launch, Laika's heart beat normally, cabin pressure stayed steady and oxygen levels were constant. Laika (meaning "barker") went to an altitude of almost 2,000 miles aboard Sputnik 2, one month after the Soviet Union stunned the world and triggered the space race with Sputnik 1, the first object in orbit.įor the next 40 years, Kremlin chiefs allowed the rest of the world to believe that Laika lived to see the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution and then died peacefully. ![]()
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