Laika

'As lonely as Laika from the sky'

"I'm sorry for the dog Laika had to go though this all she wanted was to be able to get off the streets and find a master to love her to give her a good home, but instead the first person she trust not only betrayed her but left her in space to die alone. I know you dead now you've been dead for 57 years now, that sad cause you been dead longer then you were alive cause you were only three when they took you off the streets and sent you in space to die, but where ever your spirit may be I want to say I'm sorry Laika for what those scientists did to you I'm sorry Laika I really am."

On the evening of November 3, 1957, barely a month after the Soviet Union sent humanity's first artificial satellite into orbit, a rocket lifted off from a secret site in Kazakhstan, carrying its second. The launch of Sputnik 2 was timed to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the October Revolution, and the craft itself was an appropriately showy statement of Communist know-how—six times heavier than Sputnik 1, designed to fly nearly twice as high, and, most impressive of all, containing a live passenger. A week before the mission began, Moscow Radio had broadcast an interview with the cosmonaut in question, described as “a small, shaggy dog.” Western newspapers, however, were initially confused about what to call her. Introduced as Kudryavka (“Little Curly”), she was also known as Limonchik (“Little Lemon”) and Damka (“Little Lady”). A Soviet spokesman eventually clarified that her name was Laika (“Barker”)

On this day in 1957, a stray mutt named Laika became the first animal ever to orbit the Earth. She was launched on Sputnik 2, a mission that reinforced the huge lead that the Soviet space program had over the Americans in the early years of the space race. Her historic voyage marked a major milestone for space explorations, and she has become an international symbol of triumph over impossible odds.

But there is a darker side to this optimistically heroic image we have thrust on the most famous of the canine cosmonauts. Mere hours after she boldly went where no dog had gone before, Laika made history for a second time by becoming the first animal to die in orbit.

The plan was to euthanize her with poisoned dog food after several days of tests, but instead, a malfunction in the temperature control system resulted in her dying from stress and overheating.

Throughout all of this, Laika was absolutely terrified. Her heart was beating at triple its normal rate during the launch. With no handlers to comfort her—as they had after centrifuge tests — it took much longer than usual for her to calm down. No sooner had the stress of the launch receded than Laika was exposed to the spiraling heat and humidity, in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, that would end up killing her.

In 2002, forty-five years after the fact, Russian scientists revealed that she had died, probably in agony, after only a few hours in orbit. In the rush to put another satellite into space, the Soviet engineers had not had time to test Sputnik 2’s cooling system properly; the capsule had overheated. It remained in orbit for five months with Laika inside, then plunged into the atmosphere and burned up over the Caribbean, a space coffin turned shooting star. Turkina quotes one of the scientists assigned to Laika’s program: “The more time passes, the more I’m sorry about it. We shouldn’t have done it. We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog.”

On top of that, multiple songs have paid tribute to her twin role as a pioneer and as a martyr, and often express hope that she will magically return. The final verse of "Laika" by Chicago rock band Kill Hannah, for example, goes, "I know how alone you feel so far away/ While they pretend to remember you/ Laika, I'll make you proud/ Is Laika coming home? Laika, please come home."

Yes, she earned an enviable place in space history. But where Soviet and American astronauts could consent to putting their lives on the line, Laika had no ability to do the same. She died not knowing where the hell she was, why she was weightless, or whether she'd ever come home again.