![]() " Laika's Window: The Legacy of a Soviet Space Dog (opens in new tab)" (Trinity University Press, 2018) explains how Laika's flight paved the way for human spaceflight. A feature in The New Yorker (opens in new tab) explores the social and political aspects of Laika's flight. Historian Alice George explored Laika's story in detail for Smithsonian Magazine (opens in new tab). The Soviet Union notched that milestone on April 12, 1961, launching cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on an orbital mission - and bringing him safely back to Earth. It took a few more years for the first person to reach space. The United States bounced back with the successful launch of the Explorer 1 satellite on Jan. (The satellite's rocket exploded, on national TV, just seconds after liftoff.) (1.6 kg) Vanguard Test Vehicle 3, which would have been the United States' first satellite. The other two were the liftoff of Sputnik 1 and the Dec. Celebrating the animal astronauts who paved the way for human spaceflight One became the poster child for astronaut masculinity Two female monkeys went to space 60 years ago. From Yuri Gagarin's launch to today, human spaceflight has always been political "'When I saw the dog go up, I said, 'My God, we better get going because it's going to be a legitimate program to put man in space,'" Robert Gilruth, who later became the first director of what is now NASA's Johnson Space Center, said according to NASA (opens in new tab). Sputnik 2's launch was one of three spaceflight events that shook the United States in 1957, causing widespread concern among Americans about the nation's technological capabilities compared to those of its Cold War rival. "Many people reportedly saw a fiery trail of Sputnik 2 as it flew over New York and reached the Amazon region in just 10 minutes during its re-entry." The Soviets and Americans in a Cold War space race "With all systems dead, the spacecraft continued circling the Earth until April 14, 1958, when it re-entered the atmosphere after 2,570 orbits (2,370 orbits according to other sources) or 162 days in space," Zak wrote. 10, 1957, and the spacecraft stopped beaming data home. "According to other sources, severe overheating and the death of the dog occurred only five or six hours into the mission."Īccording to NASA (opens in new tab), the spacecraft may have overheated because the thermal control system didn't work properly and some insulation tore off due to an anomaly during the launch. "Decades later, several Russian sources revealed that Laika survived in orbit for four days and then died when the cabin overheated," Zak wrote (opens in new tab). (Image credit: ulstein bild via Getty Images) But that account has been called into question over the years.Ī model of the Sputnik 2 capsule that carried Laika on display at the Soviet Pavilion of the Brussels World Fair held in 1958. Initially, Soviet publications claimed that the dog died, painlessly, after a week in Earth orbit. Telemetry data showed that Laika survived the launch, according to Anatoly Zak of. Sputnik 2 was a suicide mission for the poor dog the satellite was not designed to come safely back to Earth and the Soviet space program didn't want to delay the launch. "The early telemetry indicated Laika was agitated but eating her food." Laika's death Laika, decked out in a harness, a crude sanitation device and a set of electrodes, had access to food and water "in a gelatinized form," according to NASA (opens in new tab). Laika could sit or lie down in the cabin, which was equipped with an air regeneration system and padding. ![]() The spacecraft carried scientific instruments to measure solar radiation and cosmic rays, as well as a cabin for Laika that was equipped with a video camera. (508 kg), according to NASA (opens in new tab). The spacecraft was 13 feet (4 meters) tall and 6.5 feet (2 m) at its widest, and it weighed 1,120 lbs. The spacecraft was much larger and more elaborate than its predecessor. Sputnik 2 launched just a month later according to one account (opens in new tab) of an interview with cosmonaut Georgy Grechko, who flew in the 1970s, the project was rushed to coincide with the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution that eventually led to the Soviet Union. (83 kilograms), beach-ball-size sphere that basically just emitted beeps as it circled Earth, although those beeps shocked the world. (Image credit: Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images) A model of Laika inside the Sputnik 2 capsule on display at the Central House of Aviation and Cosmonautics in Moscow in 2017.
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