From a wild dog wandering through the streets, Laika is chosen to be the first living creature on the “one-way-no-return” journey, flying around Earth’s orbit, paving the way for future human space missions.
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 1 made history by becoming the first artificial object to orbit the Earth. Following the success of Sputnik 1, engineers hastened to build Sputnik 2 with a dog pressure chamber. The spacecraft weighs 508 kilograms, six times the weight of Sputnik 1, and will be the first living creature to orbit the Earth.
Sixty-five years ago, on November 3, 1957, the Soviet Union continued to launch the artificial satellite Sputnik 2 into Earth’s orbit along with the Laika, a hybrid breed of husky and spitz chosen by the Soviets to carry out the first space mission in the country’s history.
This satellite launch was conducted for the purpose of exploring the safety of future human space travel. However, this is the fateful journey of Laika’s dog because the technology of that time was not yet advanced enough to make a flight from space back to Earth.
By the late 1950s, science was very vague about the effects of space flights on the human body. In order to make a long step forward, creating the “dawn of the conquest of the universe of mankind”, it is necessary to carry out experiments. And animals are the targets that scientists are aiming for to “go” the impact of space on living creatures first.
The search for the “good son” for the historical mission
Laika was originally named Kudryavka. But the world remembers you by the name Laika, a Soviet word just like a cold country husky. And the American media calls Laika Muttnik, a typeplay of the Sputnik.
To train the mind and body before the historic flight, scientists select multiple candidates simultaneously with tests to test their level of submission and obedience.
The dogs that meet the requirement step one will enter the next extremely challenging phase of living in a narrow cage for days to weeks and have to get used to the taste by eating only one liquid food, possibly your food in space.
Doctors will test their reactions to sudden changes in air pressure and loud noise, including sudden elevation to the air. In the end, only two dogs survived the hard trials, including, Laika, and Laika-Albina’s preparatory candidate.
Some rumors say that Albina performs better than Laika, but because she just gave birth and won the affection of her foster parents, she didn’t face a suicide flight. The doctors performed surgeries on both dogs, implanting medical devices into their bodies to monitor their heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure and movement.
Three days before the launch, Laika entered a restricted area that allowed only a few inches of movement. The animal was then bathed, equipped with sensors, sanitary equipment, and wearing a space suit.
At exactly 5:30 a.m., the Sputnik II was launched into Earth’s orbit, carrying Laika, the brave dog that overcame every severe test underground, with a G* force five times the normal.
Laika is still alive when she gets into orbit and flies around the Earth for about 103 minutes. Unfortunately, the loss of the thermal shield causes the temperature in the chamber to rise unexpectedly, posing a danger to the animal.
“The temperature inside the spacecraft after the fourth orbit reaches over 90 degrees. It’s really unlikely that Laika will cross another or two orbits,” said Cathleen Lewis, who is in charge of international space programmes and space costumes at the Smithsonian National Museum of Aeronautics and Space.
During the rocket launch, your circuit beats three times faster than normal. You’re so scared while the spacecraft hasn’t stopped speeding up in the sky for a long time. The temperature in the spacecraft jumped and a few hours later, I died of suffocation. The unfortunate thing is, you’ve had to suffer so much pain and leave in solitude.
For Laika, even if all the equipment on the ship was working well, with enough food, drinking water and oxygen, it would still die when the Sputnik 2 spacecraft crashed into the atmosphere after about five months, completing 2,570 orbits. However, the flight that promised Laika’s inevitable death brought evidence that space is a living place.
Laika became a part of history as the first living creature to fly around Earth. Nowadays, the story of the little “pioneer” continues to appear on websites, in videos, poems and books. In Beastly Natures: Animals, Humans and the Study of History, expert Amy Nelson shares that the Soviet Union has transformed Laika into “a perpetual symbol of human sacrifice and achievement”.
