Space exploration is today a developed science that has already succeeded in taking humanity to the Moon and is on the verge of placing the first human travelers on Mars. However, behind the development of technology lie dark stories that many justify in favor of science. A clear example of this is the sad story of Laika, the first living being to orbit the Earth.
The space engineers of the now-unexistent Soviet Union planned the launch of Sputnik 2 in haste. The country was about to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, so Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev requested a flight to coincide with November 7, 1957; the anniversary day.
The Soviets had already made history when they launched their Sputnik 1, which became the first human-made object to orbit the Earth on October 4, 1957. They planned to repeat the feat but, this time, decided to add a more complicated element, a living being.
This was not the first time the Soviet Union had launched animals into space; they had previously sent at least 6 dogs into space before Laika appeared on the map. However, none of them reached Earth orbit, which was the goal of the Sputnik missions.
The canine recruiters began searching for the one chosen to travel into space and orbit the Earth. They soon turned their sights on a stray pack from which they extracted two females because they were smaller and more docile. Recruitment was not easy, the chosen dogs endured difficult tasks that included living inside pressurized cabins.
During the process, doctors monitored their reactions to changes in air pressure, as well as to the loud noises that would accompany liftoff. After the tests, it was determined that the female Kudryavka, a husky/spitz mix, would be the one chosen to be sent into the orbit, although a replacement, a dog named Albina, was also chosen in case something happened to Kudryavka before Sputnik 2 liftoff.
Laika, the barker
Three-year-old Kudryavka was introduced to Soviet citizens via radio. During the presentation, the dog barked and was nicknamed Laika (Russian for barker). There is a rumor that Albina had outperformed Laika in the tests; however, it was decided not to send her into space because she had recently given birth to a litter of puppies and had apparently won the affection of her caretakers.
Three days before the launch of Sputnik 2, Laika entered the capsule which did not allow her to make any complicated movements. There she remained dressed in her space suit, until November 3, 1957, at 5:30 a.m. local time, when the spacecraft was launched reaching up to five times normal gravity levels.
Laika’s heartbeat skyrocketed immediately, reaching up to three times normal levels, and, of course, her heart rate also quadrupled. Laika finally reached orbit alive and made a full circle around the Earth in approximately 103 minutes. And although the trip surely panicked the little dog, it was the temperature that took its toll and, sadly, Laika’s life.
Laika became the first living being to orbit around our planet. Contradictorily, to boast this achievement, the little stray had to give her life in a mission that proved the Soviet supremacy in the space race. Unfortunately, she was not the only animal that suffered this fate; the space exploration of all the agencies around the world is based on a hundred animals that paid the cost of technological development.
But more than six decades after Laika’s death, her legacy has been indelibly imprinted in the minds of humans. A story that leads us to reflect on animals, who also deserve to live with dignity, because on more than one occasion it has been proven that they feel pain and emotions just like humans.
Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera
