On Nov. 3, 1957, Laika, a stray dog found on the streets of Moscow, blasted into space aboard the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2. With that flight, she became the first living creature to orbit Earth. The mission came less than a month after Sputnik 1 kicked off the space age and intensified the competition between the Soviet Union and the United States. Scientists hoped Laika’s journey would provide information about whether a living creature could withstand the conditions of spaceflight as they looked ahead to eventually sending humans into orbit.
Laika survived takeoff where the G-forces, and likely fear, rocketed her heartbeat to triple its normal rate, and made her first orbit of Earth in 103 minutes. Sadly, Laika was never expected to come home as Sputnik 2 had no plans for a safe return. Scientists anticipated she would die quickly from oxygen deprivation at the end of the seventh day. An unexpected loss of the heatshield on day one caused the cabin temperature to rise exponentially, and Laika passed sometime between her fourth and sixth orbit. The Soviet Union initially tried to hide this, going so far as to falsify official documents, and reported to the public that she remained alive until Nov.12, 1957.
Although the mission raised ethical questions that continue to surround Laika’s legacy, the information gathered from early animal flights contributed to scientists’ understanding of how living organisms might respond to space travel.
