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Dog Star: Laika Honored in Moscow
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by Jordan Yerman | April 12, 2008 at 06:16 am
883 views | 20 Recommendations | 10 comments
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The first living thing in space (at least from Earth) has finally gotten her due: a statue has been erected in Moskow for Laika, the first Earthling in space. Laika began life as a street dog, and was later quite literally rocketed to fame as part of the USSR's high-profile space program.
The monument, erected a day before Russia's Cosmonautics Day celebrated on April 12, is a two-meter (6.5 feet) high space rocket with Laika proudly standing on top.
The three-year-old mongrel, originally named Kudryavka or 'little curly-haired one,' was selected from an animal shelter to become the first living passenger to fly on the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2.
Laika was launched into space on November 3, 1957 and died a few hours later from overheating. Officials said she died due to a lack of oxygen, but the true cause of death was only made public in October 2002.
He died of overheating and panic during the first few hours of the flight. The satellite burned up upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere five months after the launch.
"Laika was quiet andcharming," Dr. Vladimir Yazdovsky wrote in his book chronicling the story ofSoviet space medicine. He recalled that before heading to the launch pad, hetook the dog home to play with his children. "I wanted to do something nice forher: She had so little time left to live," Yazdovsky said.
Twenty-year-old Krosh is one of 3,000 monkeys living in the Sochi Primate Research Institute. He is a retired cosmonaut.
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Jordan Yerman
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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at 07:12 on April 12th, 2008
Jordan, I like this story. It's good stuff. So many animals helped us previously Earth bound humans to soar into the cosmos, a fact most often overlooked after we humans ventured into the heavens. Nice story!
at 07:16 on April 12th, 2008
jordan, It is sad most of the animals sent into space did not survive, unlike humans they did not choose to go.
at 07:18 on April 12th, 2008
That is so true, Vinny!
at 07:33 on April 12th, 2008
Agreed. Laika was like a sacrificial lamb (or dog, in this case), literally giving her life so that the first human attempt would be successful. The story seems sort of fanciful at first, but there's a very dark current to it, which you found right away: Laika died in pain and fear far above the Earth's surface, for a mission she didn't volunteer for or understand: there's no animal-kingdom equivalent to exit velocity or reduced gravity or reentry friction.
at 17:45 on April 12th, 2008
jordan, I like this story. It's good stuff, but wretched happening. What the Soviets did was just plain cruelty and abuse...suffocating an animal to death slowly. Then again, their safety record and safety for cosmonauts and workers was abysmal, too.
The U.S. only sent chimps (and some mice) into space on very very short missions, and chimps actually trained.
The Mercury 7 astronauts were really po'd at the chimp caper!
EDIT: I have removed a sentence and a link as my link, which I double-checked, was to a NASA page, but it wound up leading elsewhere. I'm discussing this with Jordan.
at 17:55 on April 12th, 2008
I want everyone to be very clear on this, and I've notified staff. The link that turned up in my comment was to something controversial being stirred up, on purpose as near as I can tell. My original link went to a NASA page. Had a friend not alerted me that my link had been changed somehow, I wouldn't have known.
If anyone sees anything from me that doesn't "sound like me," please notify me. I am ceasing contributions until this is ironed out.
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Vinnyat 18:53 on April 12th, 2008
I think all members should watch out for links in their stories or comments being changed to lead to a different site.
at 19:29 on April 12th, 2008
But who is changing them?
at 22:36 on April 12th, 2008
I agree with Vinnie and PEP, on another note, when doing a search engine search on google on one of my past stories, I find it state Barry Artiste , Now Public Contributor, Opinion story on yadda, yadda, and when I hit it to read it , it is actually another site complete with advertisements from everything from Porn to Cellular service, guess advertisers will resort to hijacking frequently used or serached names on Google to piggyback their advertisements on my stories, which never appear on thier sites anyways. Certainly a new type of Spam I have never seen before.
at 15:45 on April 12th, 2008
jordan, I like this story. It's good stuff. Such a tragedy for a race to space, certainly they were different times. As a kid, I had stamps commemorating space flight, as well as many soviet one, now gone somewhere I don't know. I always wanted to be an astronaut as a kid, until later on finding out you had to be a US Citizen. As for the Research Institute in Sochi, Sochi being a small resort town, I never got to see any research institute both times I was there in Sochi the late 1990s and 2003. I did happen to see Moscows Space Shuttle off the Moscow River, it is identical to the American, funny though I do not ever remember seeing or hearing of a Russian Space Shuttle in flight or landing. Perhaps it was only a tourist draw.
As for the Monkey Institute in Sochi, It must be REALLLLL small, or recent.