Translated, her name means “the barking one”: 65 years ago today, the mixed-breed dog Laika was the first living creature to travel from earth to space. The then Soviet Union sent the two-year-old stray from the streets of Moscow into orbit in the Sputnik 2 space capsule.
On October 4, 1957, Moscow launched the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into orbit, shocking archrival USA. Moscow has now gone one step further: Sputnik 2, with Laika on board, was to open the door to manned space flight. Like generations of human space travelers after her, the dog first had to go through a strict selection process. According to Russian media reports, the animals were allowed to weigh a maximum of six kilograms. In the months before the start, the four-legged candidates were trained to remain calm in smaller and smaller cages. They had to hold out in a confined space for up to three weeks. Laika’s stoic composure in the training camp was ultimately the deciding factor for her flight.
Eventually, Laika, picked up by dog catchers on the streets of Moscow, was squeezed into a metal cylinder 80 centimeters long. Sensors were attached to her body to measure heart rate, blood pressure and breathing. Her only modest amenity was a small peephole. Oxygen and food should last seven days. Engineers had installed a treatment system for breathing air, along with the appropriate cooling technology. But shortly after launch and while the rocket was accelerating, Laika’s calmness was broken. Her breathing and heart rate increased threefold. Only when the capsule reached its orbit and orbited the earth did the frequency of breathing activity drop again and the pulse also normalized.
At the time, Soviet propaganda claimed that Laika had passed away peacefully after a flight lasting several days due to lack of oxygen. However, a Russian scientist revealed a few years ago that the capsule’s cooling systems failed when the heat from the unejected third stage of the rocket engine spread, and Laika died of overheating after just five hours in her cramped enclosure. Sputnik 2 orbited the earth with the dead Laika for almost half a year. In April 1958 the satellite re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and burned up. Years passed before the first man was launched into space – the Soviet pilot Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961. Unlike Laika, Gagarin returned safely.