Shortly after they announced to the public something which was apparent to Moscow from the start-Laika would not be returning to Earth but would be regarded as a Soviet state hero. On November 3, Soviet scientists announced that Sputnik 2 had launched and Laika was alive in orbit. Provisions to ensure the dog made it back home safe would take much longer and could end up wasting a great deal of money if it turned out Sputnik could not even keep Laika alive in orbit. Scientists were already breaking new ground in building systems to support life onboard Sputnik 2. However, the Soviet leadership's desire for a speedy achievement meant Laika's return journey was doomed from the start. Mukha instead became the test subject of Laika's life support during ground tests. The casting was not solely scientific, as Laika beat out her nearest rival, Mukha, thanks to being more "photogenic," Argumenti i Fakty reported. Part of the training involved testing the dogs' readiness to stay still in increasingly confined cages over the course of two weeks. The space inside was also very tight, with engineers estimating that the spacecraft's only crew member could not be heavier than 7 kilograms (15lbs.), according to Russia's online space encyclopedia Astronaut.Īround 10 dogs were handpicked after fitting the size requirement, and Laika was among the three deemed calmest and most suitable for the mission. Sputnik 2 was considerably larger than its 141 pound-predecessor, weighing in at nearly half a ton (1,120lbs). Eager to make the most of the first satellite's breakthrough in October, Khruschev wanted scientists to ensure that by the Soviet Union's state holiday marking the Bolshevik Revolution, the Kremlin had another new accomplishment to celebrate, Russia's Argumenti i Fakty newspaper recalls.
Time was also pressing as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had set a November deadline for the launch of Sputnik 2. having already opted for using monkey test subjects, while France subsequently sent a cat and China launched rats into space. Testing space travel capabilities was becoming commonplace at the time, with the U.S.
However, the pair flew suborbital, making the repetition of Sputnik's flight into orbit with another canine onboard a new challenge altogether. Soviet scientists had already flown dogs into space, launching Tsygan and Dezikin in August 1951, and both returned alive. While the small, antennae covered ball was little more than a honing beacon, designed to survive in Earth's orbit, its successor, Sputnik 2, had to do all that and accommodate a living creature inside it. with an early triumph in October 1957, when the rotund Sputnik satellite began its orbit of the Earth, the Kremlin was keen to maintain momentum.
Though they managed to make cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin the first human in outer space four years later, he was not the first living creature to make the journey.īefore Gagarin's flight came mongrel pup Laika, whose journey into orbit took place exactly 60 years ago on Friday. A month after the Soviet Union made one of its greatest political and scientific coups with the launch of Earth's first manmade satellite in 1957, Moscow planned to be the first to send a living creature into space.
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