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Fact #4

SilverWordz

on Nov. 2, 2007

Sadly Laika did not survive her historical flight into orbit, but she did prove that survival was possible.

To clarify why I held this update until today, in my research I discovered that today, November 3rd 2007 is the 50th anniversary of Laika's flight into space. When I initially got the idea to do a dogs in space page, I literally knew absolutely nothing about the history surrounding this, so the shock of the coincidence hit me square on.

Also, be warned, this is going to be lengthy. Really lengthy, I forgive you if you don't want to read it all, but I urge you to learn more about Laika either here or with your own research. What I've learned has both fascinated and slightly horrified me.

During the 1950's and 1960's the great space race was going on between the USSR and the USA. Each country was racing to see which would be the first to launch stuff into space, and the first to prove that eventually man could survive a space flight. The test subjects the USSR chose to use were dogs.

Several dogs were launched over those two decades, both sub-orbital and orbital. Some dogs were launched multiple times.

The dogs used were all strays picked up from the streets or shelters; because it was believed strays rather than house raised dogs would be better able to tolerate the stress. Also all the dogs were female due to their temperament and because special equipment used to collect their waste was only suited for females.

The dogs were subjected to training that included being still for long periods of time, purely in small spaces. Progressively shrinking their confines until they were nothing more than boxes, and staying in these for up to 15-20 days at a time. They were outfitted with special space suits. Placed in centrifuges to simulate a rocket launch, and fed only a nutritious jelly that was high in fiber and protein.

Some of the most ground breaking dogs in space:
Dezik and Tsygan were the first dogs to make a sub-orbital flight. Laika was the first dog and living being from earth to make an orbital flight.

Belka and Strelka were the first dogs to make an orbital flight and return to earth safely. Strelka later went on to have puppies and one of the puppies, Pushinka, was presented as a gift to JFK's daughter Caroline.

Veterok and Ugolyok spent 22 days in orbit. A record breaking duration that was not surpassed by humans until Skylab 2 in June 1973 and still stands as the longest space flight by dogs.

For more info on each and every of the amazing space dogs please check out the list at wikipedia.

For me though, the most fascinating story is that of Laika.


Laika's original name was Kudryavka but due to the fact that it was too hard for the world outside of the USSR to pronounce she was later referred to as Laika, which is actually a name of a breed, or rather, a type of dog, translating to "barker". She was approximately 3 years old and 13 lbs (6 kg) when she was found in a shelter and chosen for the program.

Three days before mission start, Laika was placed in the satellite. It was extremely cold at the time so a hose was connected to her container pumping heat to keep her warm and assistants were stationed to keep watch over her. Right before lift off, her fur was sponged in a weak alcohol solution and she was carefully groomed. Iodine was painted onto areas where sensors would be placed to monitor her bodily functions.



On November 3rd, 1957 Laika was launched into orbit inside the Russian space satellite, Sputnik 2.

Of all the dogs sent up on the many missions Russia did over the years, Laika was the only dog sent up without a retrieval plan.

She was never meant to return home.

For 45 years after her flight, rumor and controversy surrounded the death of the dog. Many of the rumors were that she had survived for several days before being euthanized by poisoned food, or that she had run out of oxygen. The truth wasn't revealed until October of 2002 when one of the scientists involved in the project finally revealed that she had only survived 5-7 hours of her space flight. She had passed away due to a failure on Sputnik 2 in the cooling of her chamber and had become overheated and overly stressed.

It wasn't revealed to the public until 10 days after the launch that there was only enough air and food on board for the dog to survive for 7-10 days and that no plans to retrieve the satellite had ever been made. An action that sparked debate across the globe about the mistreatment of animals and animal testing in order to advance science, though at the time the media and public were more preoccupied with the political ramifications of the flight on the USA vs USSR Space Race.

"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." - Oleg Gazenko, one of the lead scientists of the Soviet animals-in-space program and the man responsible for selecting and training Laika (speaking at a Moscow news conference in 1998).

Why was there no plan to retrieve the satellite? Because they were literally given less than four weeks to completely build and launch Sputnik 2.

After the success of Sputnik 1, which was launched October 4th 1957, the Soviet leader, wanted a second spacecraft launched by November 7, the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. A more sophisticated satellite was already under construction, but it would not be ready until December, and he could not wait for Sputnik 3 to be finished. They had to finish the race first.

Laika has been memorialized in many ways over the years.

She is perhaps the only character in the Monument to the Conquerors of Space, other than Lenin himself, who can be individually identified by name. A plaque commemorating fallen cosmonauts was unveiled at the Institute for Aviation and Space Medicine in Star City, Moscow, in November 1997; Laika appears in one corner. She's been pictured on postage stamps from around the world, has foods and cigarettes named after her, has been featured in numerous works of literature, often with a theme of her survival or rescue, a number of bands have taken inspiration from her for their names and her story is eluded to or featured in many songs.

Finally, yes I'm almost done, I'm going to quote this article here.

Laika first said "hello" to the people of Earth on a radio broadcast, Oct. 27, a week before her historic flight. She barked into the microphone.

While in space, she transmitted a continual "beep-beep-beep" on a radio frequency that served as a tracking signal. Soon after launch, Sputnik 2's transmitters failed and the signal ceased. After six days, all contact with the craft was lost.

Laika's 1120-pound (508-kilogram) capsule remained in orbit for a total of 162 days, circling the Earth 2570 times before burning up in the atmosphere on April 14, 1958. To anyone watching the sky at that time, she made her final statement as a tiny falling star in the night.