Unfortunately, loss of the heat shield made the temperature in the capsule rise unexpectedly, taking its toll on Laika. She reached orbit alive, circling the Earth in about 103 minutes. The National Air and Space Museum holds declassified printouts showing Laika’s respiration during the flight. The noises and pressures of flight terrified Laika: Her heartbeat rocketed to triple the normal rate, and her breath rate quadrupled. On November 3 at 5:30 a.m., the ship lifted off with G-forces reaching five times normal gravity levels. Newly cleaned, armed with sensors, and fitted with a sanitation device, she wore a spacesuit with metal restraints built-in. Three days before the scheduled liftoff, Laika entered her constricted travel space that allowed for only a few inches of movement. One of her keepers, Vladimir Yazdovsky, took 3-year-old Laika to his home shortly before the flight because “I wanted to do something nice for the dog,” he later recalled.īetween 19, Soviet allies, such as Romania (above), Albania, Poland and North Korea, issued Laika postage stamps. Soviet physicians chose Laika to die, but they were not entirely heartless. Doctors performed surgery on both dogs, embedding medical devices in their bodies to monitor heart impulses, breathing rates, blood pressure and physical movement. Rumors emerged that Albina had out-performed Laika, but because she had recently given birth to puppies and because she had apparently won the affections of her keepers, Albina did not face a fatal flight. Introduced to the public via radio, Kudryavka barked and later became known as Laika, “barker” in Russian. However, some adapted.Įventually, the team chose the placid Kudryavka (Little Curly) as Sputnik 2’s dog cosmonaut and Albina (White) as backup. The dogs did not like the devices, and to avoid using them, some retained bodily waste, even after consuming laxatives. Testers fitted candidates with a sanitation device connected to the pelvic area. The doctors also checked their reactions to changes in air pressure and to loud noises that would accompany liftoff. Eventually, canine finalists lived in tiny pressurized capsules for days and then weeks at a time. Initial tests determined obedience and passivity. The Soviet canine recruiters began their quest with a herd of female stray dogs because females were smaller and apparently more docile. On November 3, 1957, Sputnik 2, with the dog Laika aboard, lifted off with g-forces reaching five times normal gravity levels. Cathleen Lewis, the curator of international space programs and spacesuits at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum doubts that a few ounces of food would have made a difference, and she recalls reports that a female physician broke protocol by feeding Laika before liftoff. They expected Laika to die from oxygen deprivation-a painless death within 15 seconds-after seven days in space.
Sputnik 2 would go into orbit with the final stage of the rocket attached, and engineers believed the ship’s 1,120-pound payload, six times as heavy as Sputnik 1, could be kept within limits by feeding its passenger only once. Sputnik 1 had made history, becoming the first man-made object in Earth orbit October 4, 1957.
Using what they had learned from the unmanned and undogged Sputnik 1 and often working without blueprints, teams labored quickly to build a ship that included a pressurized compartment for a flying dog. Soviet engineers planned Sputnik 2 hastily after Premier Nikita Khrushchev requested a flight to coincide with November 7, 1957, the 40th anniversary of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution. Over the decades, the petite pioneer has repeatedly found new life in popular culture long after her death and the fiery demise of her Soviet ship, Sputnik 2, which smashed into the Earth’s atmosphere 60 years ago this month. Sad as this tale is, the stray husky-spitz mix became a part of history as the first living creature to orbit the Earth. Overheated, cramped, frightened, and probably hungry, the space dog gave her life for her country, involuntarily fulfilling a canine suicide mission. With a pounding heart and rapid breath, Laika rode a rocket into Earth orbit, 2,000 miles above Moscow streets she knew.
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