It took three times longer than after a centrifuge ride on the ground to return Laika's heartbeat to pre-launch values, an indication of the stress she was suffering.ĭr Malashenkov also revealed how Laika died. Medical sensors placed on Laika indicated that during launch her pulse rate went up by a factor of three above its resting level.Īt the start of weightlessness, her pulse rate decreased. Mushka was used to test instrumentation and life support. Albina was the first "backup", having flown twice on a high-altitude rocket. Three dogs were trained for the Sputnik 2 flight: Albina, Laika and Mushka. They were kept in gradually smaller cages for periods up to 15-20 days. There was a carbon dioxide absorbing device in the cabin to prevent the accumulation of this toxic gas, as well as an oxygen generator.Ī fan was automatically activated to keep the dog cool when the capsule's temperature exceeded 15 deg Celsius.Īccording to Dr Malashenkov, a great deal of work had to be done to adapt a group of dogs to the conditions in the tight cabin of Sputnik 2. The statement caused outrage to many observers.ĭr Malashenkov has now revealed several new details about Laika's mission, such as her food being in jelly form and that she was chained to prevent her turning around. Shortly after launch the Soviets said that Laika was not destined to return alive and would die in space. The animal had been a stray wandering the streets of Moscow when she was captured and prepared for a space mission. Included among these are the golden retrievers at Texas A&M University who have been bred to develop painful and severely debilitating Duchenne muscular dystrophy.It was a metal sphere weighing about 18 kg (40 lbs) and was far heavier than anything the United States was contemplating launching.Īn astonished world witnessed the launch of Sputnik 2 weighing 113 kg (250 lbs) and carrying the first living thing to go into orbit - the dog Laika.
More than 65,000 dogs are tormented in U.S. Is this really how “man’s best friend” should be treated?ĭogs’ status as “man’s best friend” offers them no protection from being locked inside cages alone and forced to endure excruciating experiments. And we got NASA’s plan to irradiate monkeys scrapped. But rats, mice, primates, fish, turtles, and other animals are still being sent into space in cruel curiosity-driven experiments. These animals all have a right to be treated with respect and not be experimented on, no less than Laika did.
In 1996, PETA successfully campaigned to get NASA to pull out of Bion-a joint U.S., French, and Russian experiment in which scientists forced monkeys into straitjackets and implanted electrodes in their bodies before launching them into space. The sad story of Laika, the first dog launched into orbit Even Oleg Gazenko-one of the lead scientists who worked with dogs used in the space program-thought so, admitting, “The more time passes, the more I’m sorry about it. What Laika was subjected to was cruel and inexcusable.
Temperatures inside the tiny spacecraft quickly soared, and within hours, she cooked to death-all alone and in severe pain. During the launch, her pulse shot up to three times its normal rate and she was so terrified that it remained elevated for an extended time. More than 60 years ago, Laika was captured as a stray on Moscow’s streets and subjected to grueling “training,” including being spun in a centrifuge, confined to a pressure chamber, and locked inside progressively smaller cages.
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