![]() ![]() This discovery outraged animal rights activists around the world. There was no recovery procedure for orbital flights at the time, so it became obvious that Laika was the only living creature expected to die in space. Sputnik-2 continued to orbit for 163 days and 2,370 orbits, until April 14, 1958, when it burned up during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Dimitri Malashenkov of the Institute for Biological Problems in Moscow admitted that only five to seven hours post-launch of Sputnik-2, no signs of life were being transmitted from Laika and that by the fourth orbit, it became clear from her extremely rapid heartbeat that she had died from the effects of stress, likely brought on by a combination of fear and the prolonged 104-degree temperature that occurred when Sputnik-2 failed to separate from its booster rocket, causing the thermal control system to fail. However, nearly 45 years later, in October 2002, during a meeting of the World Space Congress in Houston, Dr. Her vital signs were monitored with electrodes placed on her body and Soviet space officials at the time stated that Laika survived four days in space and was then euthanized with a poison contained in a special gel to be used as food. She was launched into space in the 1100-pound craft named Sputnik-2 on November 3, 1957. She was a stray dog found on the streets of Moscow at an estimated three years of age and recruited by the Soviet space program to serve as the subject of an experimental flight into space for the purpose of studying the effects of space travel on living creatures. The image at the top of the page is a model on display at the Polytechnical Museum in Russia.Laika, a mixed-breed mongrel, was the first living creature to have orbited the Earth and the first living creature ever to have died in space. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, England, 1996. Harvey, B., The new Russian space programme from competition to collaboration,. Yakovlev, Scientific research during the flight of an animal in an artificial earth satellite,Īrtif. G., Soviets in space - an historical survey, Shelton, W., Soviet space exploration - the first decade,Īrthur Barker Ltd., Unnumbered, London, England, 1969. ![]() King-Hele, Use of artificial satellites to explore the earth's gravitational field - Results from Sputnik 2 (1957 Beta), Spacecraft image courtesy of Alexander Chernov - all rights reserved. The mission provided scientists with the first data on the behavior of a living organism orbiting in the space environment. Because of the thermal problems she probably only survived a day or two. There was no capability of returning a payload safely to Earth at this time, so it was planned that Laika would run out of oxygen after about 10 days of orbiting the Earth. The early telemetry indicated Laika was agitated but eating her food. Laika was fitted with a harness, a bag to collect waste, and electrodes to monitor vital signs. An air regeneration system provided oxygen food and water were dispensed in a gelatinized form. The pressurized cabin on Sputnik 2 allowed enough room for her to lie down or stand and was padded. The first being to orbit the Earth was a female part-Samoyed terrier originally named Kudryavka (Little Curly) but later renamed Laika (Barker). The orbit of Sputnik 2 decayed and it reentered Earth's atmosphere on 14 April 1958 after 162 days in orbit. It is believed Laika survived for only about two days instead of the planned ten because of the heat. Additionally some of the thermal insulation tore loose so the interior temperatures reached 40 C. This inhibited the operation of the thermal control system. After reaching orbit the nose cone was jettisoned successfully but the Blok A core did not separate as planned. Sputnik 2 was launched on a Sapwood SS-6 8K71PS launch vehicle (essentially a modified R-7 ICBM similar to that used for Sputnik 1) to a 212 x 1660 km orbit with a period of 103.7 minutes. The camera could transmit 100-line video frames at 10 frames/second. A television camera was mounted in the passenger compartment to observe Laika. Two spectrophotometers were on board for measuring solar radiation (ultraviolet and x-ray emissions) and cosmic rays. Engineering and biological data were transmitted using the Tral_D telemetry system, which would transmit data to Earth for 15 minutes of each orbit. A separate sealed cabin contained the experimental dog Laika. It contained several compartments for radio transmitters, a telemetry system, a programming unit, a regeneration and temperature control system for the cabin, and scientific instruments. It was a 4 meter high cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 meters. Sputnik 2 was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit and was the first such biological spacecraft. ![]()
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