Laika, the first earthling in Space

[Jennie McGrath]

Laika (from Russian: Лайка, a breed of dog, literally: "Barker") was a Russian space dog which became the first recorded living creature from Earth to enter orbit. At one time a stray wandering the streets of Moscow, she was selected from an animal shelter. Originally named Kudryavka (Russian: кудрявка), she was renamed Laika after her breed type. After undergoing training with two other dogs, she was selected to be the occupant of the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 and was launched into space on 3 November 1957.

Laika died a few hours after launch from stress and overheating, probably due to a malfunction in the thermal control system. The true cause of her death was not made public until decades after the flight. Some former Soviet scientists have since expressed regret that Laika was allowed to die.

Although Laika did not survive the trip, the experiment proved that a living passenger could survive being launched into orbit and endure weightlessness. It paved the way for human spaceflight and provided scientists with some of the first data on how living organisms react to spaceflight environments.

[Jennie McGrath]

Laika, in 1957, became the first animal to be launched into orbit, paving the way for human spaceflight. She is shown here in her flight harness.

[Jennie McGrath]

After the success of Sputnik 1, Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, wanted a second spacecraft launched on November 7, the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. A more sophisticated satellite was already under construction, but it would not be ready until December; this satellite would later become Sputnik 3.

To meet the November deadline, a new, less sophisticated design had to be built. According to Russian sources, the official decision to launch Sputnik 2 was made on October 10 or 12, leaving the team only four weeks to design and build the space craft. Sputnik 2, therefore, was something of a rush job, with most elements of the space craft being constructed from rough sketches. Aside from the primary mission of sending a living passenger into space, Sputnik 2 also contained instrumentation for measuring solar radiation and cosmic rays.

The craft was equipped with a life-support system consisting of an O2 generator and devices to avoid oxygen poisoning and to absorb CO2. A fan, designed to activate whenever the cabin temperature exceeded 15 °C (59 °F), was added to keep the dog cool. Enough food (in a gelatinous form) was provided for a seven-day flight, and the dog was fitted with a bag to collect waste. A harness was designed to be fitted to the dog, and there were chains to restrict its movements to standing, sitting or lying down; there was no room to turn around in the cabin. An electrocardiogram monitored heart rate and further instrumentation tracked respiration rate, maximum arterial pressure and the dog's movements

[Jennie McGrath]

The dog that would later be named Laika was found as a stray wandering the streets of Moscow. She was a mongrel female, approximately three years old, and weighed about 6 kg (13 lb). Soviet personnel gave her several names and nicknames, among them Kudryavka (Russian for Little Curly), Zhuchka (Little Bug) and Limonchik (Little Lemon). Laika, the Russian name for several breeds of dogs similar to the husky, was the name popularized around the world. The American press dubbed her Muttnik (mutt + suffix -nik) as a pun on Sputnik, or referred to her as Curly. Her true pedigree is unknown, although it is generally accepted that she was part husky or other Nordic breed, and possibly part terrier.

The Soviet Union and the United States had previously sent animals only on sub-orbital flights. Three dogs were trained for the Sputnik 2 flight: Albina, Mushka, and Laika. Russian space-life scientist Oleg Gazenko selected and trained Laika. Albina flew twice on a high-altitude test rocket, and Mushka was used to test instrumentation and life support. To adapt the dogs to the confines of the tiny cabin of Sputnik 2, they were kept in progressively smaller cages for periods up to 20 days. The extensive close confinement caused them to stop urinating or defecating, made them restless, and caused their general condition to deteriorate. Laxatives did not improve their condition, and the researchers found that only long periods of training proved effective. The dogs were placed in centrifuges that simulated the acceleration of a rocket launch and were placed in machines that simulated the noises of the spacecraft. This caused their pulses to double and their blood pressure to increase by 30–65 torr. The dogs were trained to eat a special high-nutrition gel that would be their food in space.

[Jennie McGrath]

According to a NASA document, Laika was placed in the satellite on October 31, 1957—three days before the start of the mission. The temperatures at the launch site were extremely cold at that time of year, so a hose connected to a heater was used to keep her container warm. Two assistants were assigned to keep a constant watch on Laika before launch. Just prior to liftoff on November 3, 1957 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Laika's fur was sponged in a weak alcohol solution and carefully groomed. Iodine was painted onto areas where sensors would be placed to monitor her bodily functions.

At peak acceleration Laika's respiration increased to between three and four times the pre-launch rate. The sensors showed her heart rate was 103 beats/min before launch and increased to 240 beats/min during the early acceleration. After reaching orbit, Sputnik 2's nose cone was jettisoned successfully. However, the "Block A" core did not separate as planned, preventing the thermal control system from operating correctly. Some of the thermal insulation tore loose, raising the cabin temperature to 40 °C (104 °F). After three hours of weightlessness, Laika's pulse rate had settled back to 102 beats/min, three times longer than it had taken during earlier ground tests, an indication of the stress she was under. The early telemetry indicated that Laika was agitated but eating her food. Approximately five to seven hours into the flight, no further life signs were received from the spacecraft.

The Russian scientists had planned to euthanize Laika with a poisoned serving of food. For many years, the Soviet Union gave conflicting statements that she had died either from oxygen starvation when the batteries failed, or that she had been euthanized. There were many rumours circulated about the exact manner of her passing. In 1999, several Russian sources said that she died after four days when the cabin overheated. In October 2002, Dr. Dimitri Malashenkov, one of the scientists behind the Sputnik 2 mission, revealed that Laika had died five to seven hours after launch from overheating and stress. According to a paper he presented to the World Space Congress in Houston, Texas, "It turned out that it was practically impossible to create a reliable temperature control system in such limited time constraints." Sputnik 2 was finally destroyed (along with Laika's remains) during re-entry on April 14, 1958, just over 5 months later, after 2,570 orbits.

[Jennie McGrath]

Due to the overshadowing issue of the Soviet vs. American Space Race, the humane violations of this experiment went largely unaddressed for some time. As newspaper clippings from 1957 show, the press was more preoccupied with reporting the political perspective, while the health and retrieval (or lack thereof) of Laika was hardly mentioned. Only later were there widespread discussions regarding the fate of the dog.

Sputnik 2 was not designed to be retrievable, so Laika had always been intended to die. The mission sparked a debate across the globe on the mistreatment of animals and animal testing in general to advance science.

In the United Kingdom, the National Canine Defence League called on all dog owners to observe a minute's silence, while the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) received protests even before the Soviet Union had finished announcing the mission's success. Animal rights groups at the time called on members of the public to protest at Soviet embassies. Others demonstrated outside the United Nations in New York; nevertheless, laboratory researchers in the U.S. offered some support for the Russians, at least before the news of Laika's death.

In the Soviet Union, there was apparently less controversy. Neither the media, books in the following years, nor the public openly questioned the decision to send a dog into space to die. It was not until 1998, after the collapse of the Soviet regime, that Oleg Gazenko, one of the scientists responsible for sending Laika into space, expressed regret for allowing her to die: "The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We shouldn't have done it... We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog."

[Jennie McGrath]

NASA named this soil target on Mars after Laika during the Mars Exploration Rover mission

[Jennie McGrath]

Laika's pioneering journey made her one of the most famous dogs in the world.

She is perhaps the only character in the Monument to the Conquerors of Space (1964), other than Lenin himself, who can be individually identified by name. A plaque commemorating fallen cosmonauts was unveiled at the Institute for Aviation and Space Medicine in Star City, Moscow, in November 1997; Laika appears in one corner. Several postage stamps from different countries have pictured her. Brands of chocolate and cigarettes were named in her honour, and a large collection of Laika memorabilia still appear in auctions today.

On March 9, 2005, a patch of soil on Mars was unofficially named Laika by mission controllers. It is located near Vostok Crater in Meridiani Planum. It was examined by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's microscopic imager on Sol 400.

Laika has been featured in numerous works of literature, often with a theme of her survival or rescue. The novel Intervention by Julian May mentions Laika's rescue by a sympathetic alien race. In the novel Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles by Jeanette Winterson, the ancient Greek titan Atlas finds Laika's capsule in orbit and adopts the dog. In Habitus, by James Flint, Laika survives and continues to orbit the earth, having learned to draw sustenance from the world's radio transmissions. There are also stories of her funeral (in the Doctor Who novel Alien Bodies) and travel to other planets (in the comic anthology Flight). Contemporary Japanese author Haruki Murakami's book, Sputnik Sweetheart, refers to Laika's death on its title page with a quotation from The Complete Chronicle of World History. Nick Abadzis' graphic novel Laika is a fictionalized version of the dog's life.

A number of bands have taken inspiration from Laika for their names, including Laika Dog, Laika & The Cosmonauts and the eponymous Laika, whose first three albums feature the canine cosmonaut in their cover art. The Spanish pop group Mecano, the Canadian band Arcade Fire, the band Moxy Früvous and the Swedish band The Cardigans have all written songs called "Laika". In 1986, CCCP released Cosmos featuring the song "Laika Laika", complete with Russian military men's chorus. Laika has been featured in songs by (among others) Akino Arai ("Sputnik"); Åge Aleksandersen ("Laika"); The Divine Comedy ("Absent Friends" and "Laika's Theme"); Havalina ("Leica"); The Motorhomes ("Into the Night"); Neighborhood #2 (Laïka), by the Arcade Fire; Mighty Sparrow ("Russian Satellite"); Pond ("My Dog is an Astronaut, Though"); Kyler England ("Laika") and The Circle Jerks ("Dog"). In 2002, the group Spacemonkeyz released a remixed version of the Gorillaz album called Laika Come Home. György Kurtág's tape composition, Memoire de Laika (1990) incorporates spoken text about the dog.

The 2007 video for the Trentemøller song, Moan, was about Laika. In the 1985 Swedish film My Life as a Dog (Mitt liv som hund), the protagonist—a boy who feels powerless over his own fate—compares himself to Laika.

[Jennie McGrath]

The True Story of Laika the Dog
By Anatoly Zak
Staff Writer
posted: 03:12 pm ET
03 November 1999


 

On November 3, 1957, the U.S.S.R. stunned the world with a space sensation -- the launch of Sputnik 2 with a live dog on-board. But many details of what happened to the mission have only recently been revealed.

The Space Age had started less than a month before, with the launch of the first Soviet satellite on October 4, 1957. Sputnik 1, a 40-pound sphere, carried a simple transmitter and was considered very heavy compared to the U.S. spacecraft under development at the time.

Enter Sputnik 2. The Soviet press boasted about the 250-pound object equipped with a cabin, providing all the necessary life support for a dog named Laika. Well, almost. The Soviets admitted soon after the launch that the spacecraft would not return, meaning that the animal was doomed from the start. Years after Sputnik 2 burned up in the atmosphere, conflicting scenarios of Laika's death were circulating in the West.

Recently, several Russian sources revealed that Laika survived in orbit for four days and then died when the cabin overheated. The design of the cabin was derived from the nose sections of experimental ballistic missiles that carried dogs into the upper atmosphere in short and relatively slow-speed flights, ending in a parachute landing.

With Sputnik 2, the Cold War politics left no time for designers to develop a life-support system for a long-duration flight, not to mention to protect a spacecraft for a fiery reentry.

Laika's story started soon after the Sputnik 1 triumph, when Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader at the time, hosted a big reception for leading rocket designers. Among those present was Sergei Korolev, the founder of the Soviet space program. At the reception, Khrushchev made the suggestion that another Sputnik be launched to mark the 40th Anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution celebrated on November 7.

At the time, Korolev had a sophisticated research satellite in the works. However, it could not possibly be ready for takeoff before December 1957. That satellite would later become Sputnik 3. To meet the November anniversary deadline, an entirely new design for Sputnik 2 emerged.

According to various Russian sources, the official decision to launch Sputnik 2 before November 7 was made on October 10 or 12, 1957. In any case, Korolev's team had less than four weeks to design and build the spacecraft.

"All traditions developed in rocket technology were thrown out (during work on the second satellite)," wrote Boris Chertok, deputy to Sergei Korolev. "The second satellite was created without preliminary design, or any kind of design." According to Chertok's memoirs, most elements of the spacecraft were manufactured from sketches, while engineers moved into production facilities to assist workers on site.

The common belief is that Sputnik 2 failed to separate from its booster. In reality, the satellite was designed to remain attached to the upper stage of its launcher, so that the rocket's own telemetry system could be used to transmit data from the spacecraft.

The scientists did their best to benefit from this opportunity created by Cold War politics. Laika's cabin was equipped with a television camera, along with sensors to measure ambient pressure and temperature, as well as the canine passenger's blood pressure, breath frequency and heartbeat. These instruments allowed ground controllers to monitor how Laika functioned and died in space. Above the dog's cabin, the engineers mounted a spherical container that was developed for Sputnik 1. It held a radio transmitter and an instrument to register ultraviolet and x-ray radiation.

After a successful launch, Sputnik 2 exhausted its electrical batteries after six days in orbit. With all systems dead, the spacecraft continued circling the Earth until April 14, 1958, when it reentered the atmosphere after 2,570 orbits.

The Sputnik 2 flight exemplified how science was propelled by Cold War politics -- a trend that would become more pronounced on both sides of the Atlantic in later years.

Although advertised as another example of the superiority of the Soviet system, Laika's mission also brought a few unintended results. In the West, Sputnik 2 renewed the debate over the treatment of animals, while in the U.S.S.R., the flight was widely ridiculed by ordinary citizens as propaganda.


http://www.space.com/news/laika_anniversary_991103.html

[Jennie McGrath]

The original news report:

1957: Russians launch dog into space



 
The dog is reported to be calm in the first few hours of her historic flight



The Soviet Union has launched the first ever living creature into the cosmos.
The dog, described as a female Russian breed, was projected into space this morning from Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard the artificial space satellite Sputnik II. Sputnik I, launched on 4 October, is still circling the globe.

The dog has been fitted with monitors to check its heartbeat and other vital signs and was reported to be calm during the first hours of the flight.

Russian scientists are particularly interested in the effects of solar radiation and weightlessness on living organisms.

Fury of animal lovers

Moscow Radio reported the second satellite was launched to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution and gave details about the spacecraft's contents and orbit.

Sputnik II weighs half a ton (508kg) and carries instruments for studying solar and cosmic rays, temperature and pressure, two radio transmitters and a hermetically-sealed container with "an experimental animal" inside, as well as oxygen and food supplies.

It is travelling more than 900 miles, (nearly 1,500 km) above the Earth - higher than Sputnik I - and is orbiting at about five miles (8km) a second.

It will take one hour and 42 minutes to circle the Earth.

The satellite is transmitting telegraphic signals that are being picked up from receiving stations around the globe.

Animal welfare organisations expressed outrage at news that the Russians have sent a dog into outer space.

The National Canine Defence League is calling on all dog lovers to observe a minute's silence every day the dog is in space.

The RSPCA said it received calls of protest even before the Moscow Radio announcement of the launch had ended.

It has advised those who wish to protest to do so at the Russian Embassy in London.

'Dog was trained for mission'

It is believed the Russians are planning to catapult the dog back to Earth although there has been no official announcement confirming this.

One British scientist told newspaper reporters the dog had probably been trained for the journey but was unlikely to survive.

"A terrified dog would be useless scientifically," said Dr William Lane-Petter, Director of the Laboratory Animals Bureau of the Medical Research Council.

"It would not give them the information they want. This dog will have been trained long for the task and subjected to similar simulated conditions, and this flight is just another experience of the same sort."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/3/newsid_3191000/3191083.stm

[Jennie McGrath]

Monday, 28 October, 2002, 10:34 GMT
First dog in space died within hours


 
 
By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor 
 
 
The dog Laika, the first living creature to orbit the Earth, did not live nearly as long as Soviet officials led the world to believe.
The animal, launched on a one-way trip on board Sputnik 2 in November 1957, was said to have died painlessly in orbit about a week after blast-off.

Now, it has been revealed she died from overheating and panic just a few hours after the mission started.

The new evidence was presented at the recent World Space Congress in Houston, Texas, US, by Dimitri Malashenkov of the Institute for Biological Problems in Moscow.

Noted space historian Sven Grahn told BBC News Online that the new information was surprising and significant as it ended more than 40 years of speculation about Laika's fate.

[Jennie McGrath]

Space pioneer

Laika's mission on board Sputnik 2 stunned the world. Sputnik 1, the world's first satellite, had been launched less than one month before.



 
Laika had been a stray
 
It was a metal sphere weighing about 18 kg (40 lbs) and was far heavier than anything the United States was contemplating launching.

An 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.

The animal had been a stray wandering the streets of Moscow when she was captured and prepared for a space mission.

Shortly after launch the Soviets said that Laika was not destined to return alive and would die in space. The statement caused outrage to many observers.

[Jennie McGrath]

Racing pulse

Dr 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.

There was a carbon dioxide absorbing device in the cabin to prevent the accumulation of this toxic gas, as well as an oxygen generator.

A fan was automatically activated to keep the dog cool when the capsule's temperature exceeded 15 deg Celsius.

According 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. They were kept in gradually smaller cages for periods up to 15-20 days.

Three dogs were trained for the Sputnik 2 flight: Albina, Laika and Mushka. Albina was the first "backup", having flown twice on a high-altitude rocket. Mushka was used to test instrumentation and life support.

[Jennie McGrath]

Death in space

Medical sensors placed on Laika indicated that during launch her pulse rate went up by a factor of three above its resting level.

At the start of weightlessness, her pulse rate decreased. 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.

Dr Malashenkov also revealed how Laika died. Telemetry from the Sputnik 2 capsule showed that the temperature and humidity increased after the start of the mission.

After five to seven hours into the flight, no lifesigns were being received from Laika. By the fourth orbit it was apparent that Laika had died from overheating and stress.

Previously, it has been thought that Laika survived at least four days in space and perhaps even a week when Sputnik's transmitters failed.

Despite surviving for just a few hours, Laika's place in space history is assured and the information she provided proved that a living organism could tolerate a long time in weightlessness and paved the way for humans in space.

Laika's "coffin" circled the Earth 2,570 times and burned up in the Earth's atmosphere on 4 April 1958.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2367681.stm

[Jennie McGrath]

Laika
 
  On November 3, 1957, the U.S.S.R. launched the satellite Sputnik II, carrying within it a small Russian dog, Laika. The first living being to orbit the Earth, she embodied multiple meanings on both sides of the Iron Curtain. For the Kremlin, her mission commemorated the fortieth anniversary of the "great October Socialist revolution," and she emerged as a canine hero of the Soviet Union. Gazing up at the night sky, many Americans saw the small dog as a terrifying declaration of Communist technological supremacy and American vulnerability.

Laika also revived the long raging debate over vivisection. Countless Americans bristled at Soviet inhumanity. As news of Laika’s death from overheating reached the West, American antivivisectionists capitalized on the "Muttnic Affair," turning popular anticommunism against researchers who had so successfully employed it against animal protectionists over the previous decade.

 While the debate over animal experimentation still rages, the fading of the Cold War tempered at least one prominent voice. Speaking of Laika in 1989, Gazenko declared: "Work with animals is a source of suffering to all of us. . . . The more time passes, the more I’m sorry about it. We shouldn’t have done it."

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/animals/laika.html