In October of 1957, a stray dog wandering the streets of Moscow was rescued and taken into the Soviet Union’s spaceflight program. The spaceflight program was specifically looking for female stray dogs to participate in their upcoming projects, as they believed that their small size and calm demeanor was better suited for space travel. The dog was about twelve pounds and was estimated to be about two years of age. She was given the Russian name Kudryavka, or little curly, but she was later dubbed Laika, or barker.
Laika began the training process for her launch into space aboard the Sputnik 2 just a week after she was found on the streets. She was described as being calm, quiet and very obedient. Military doctors had selected three out of the ten dogs that they had taken from the streets. Laika was to be the “flight dog,” and, as one article, “Preparing Sputnik-2 for Flight,” reads, “a sacrifice to science on a one-way mission to space.” Another stray, Albina, was to be her backup. Lastly, a third dog, Mukha, was to be the control variable in the experiment so that scientists could have something to compare Laika’s vitals to.
Russian scientist Dr. Vladimir Yazdovsky brought her home to play with his children before she was launched into space. He commented, “Laika was quiet and charming. I wanted to do something nice for her. She had so little time left to live.”
Laika trained for life aboard Sputnik 2, the second spacecraft to be launched into orbit around Earth. She was progressively given smaller and smaller living space. She spent time in a centrifuge, a device that simulates the harsh microgravity in space. She was exposed to loud noises to prepare for liftoff and even ate jellified space rations.
“I asked her to forgive us and I even cried as I stroked her for the last time,” Russian biologist Adilya Kotovskaya recalled in 2017. She died in 2020 at the age of 92..
Sputnik 2 only allowed for a few inches of movement at most. Though Laika was not to be fed before the launch, one physician broke the protocol by feeding her before liftoff. She was never meant to survive the mission into space; scientists expected Laika to die from oxygen deprivation after only a week.
One of the technicians that prepared the capsule before its flight, Yevgeniy Shabarov, said, “After placing Laika in the container and before closing the hatch, we kissed her nose and wished her bon voyage, knowing that she would not survive the flight.”
On November 3, 1957, nearly 66 years ago, Laika was launched into orbit. She never returned. Telemetry collected by sensors hooked to the dog revealed that Laika’s heart was beating 260 cycles per minute – three times higher than it had before. Additionally, the frequency of her breath rose 4-5 times above its usual. However, Laika survived the launch into space.
Initially, it was claimed that she lived in orbit for about a week, then died after eating administered poison in her food in order to assure a painless death. In 2002, though, an official with Moscow’s Institute for Biological Problems revealed the truth surrounding the conditions of Laika’s death. She did not die painlessly after a week in orbit. In fact, she died within hours of the initial launch due to panic and overheating. She was subjected to extreme temperatures when the capsule’s cooling system failed.
“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, a lead Soviet scientist, said. Against many objections, he had a window installed in Sputnik 2 so that Laika could enjoy the view of her confinement.
One article from Smithsonian Magazine detailing Laika’s one-way trip into space reads, “Ironically, a flight that promised Laika’s certain death also offered proof that space was livable.”
Sputnik 2, and furthermore Laika’s remains, disintegrated when it reentered the atmosphere on April 14, 1958. She is known as the first dog in space, the first cosmonaut, and the first animal to orbit the earth. Laika was ultimately the first animal to hold the tragic honor of dying in space. However, Laika’s space mission paved the way for human and animal spaceflight alike. Researchers learned that it was possible for organisms to survive the launch into orbit.
Today, Laika has her own memorial in Moscow where she spent the first years of her life. Her sacrifice has not been forgotten over the years, with her story being told in literature, movies, and even songs.
