Recalling Laika, the first living creature to orbit the earth in Sputnik 2

What was the Sputnik 2 mission?

Sputnik 1, which launched on October 4, 1957, was a beach-ball-sized sphere that just emitted beeps as it circled Earth. A month later, Sputnik 2 was launched.

The engineers had planned it after Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev requested a flight to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution. Smithsonian Magazine said that the engineers learned from Sputnik 1 and created the second one with a compartment for a dog.

At this time, the Soviet Union was leading the way in space exploration while the United States lagged. When Laika’s vessel, Sputnik 2, shot into orbit, the US fell even further behind.

Who was Laika and why was she chosen?

Before humans went to space, there were concerns about their ability to survive long periods of weightlessness. NASA said, “American and Russian scientists utilised animals — mainly monkeys, chimps, and dogs — in order to test each country’s ability to launch a living organism into space and bring it back alive and unharmed.”

Soviet rocket scientists wanted to send dogs to space to understand microgravity and other aspects of what spaceflight might do to a human body. “The contenders also had to be female (easier to rig up) and brightly colored (so video footage of them would be clearer),” NASA reported.

The space engineers favoured those animals who were obedient and could tolerate loud noises and air pressure changes, according to Smithsonian Magazine. This is where Laika came in.

Laika was a stray dog picked up from the streets of Moscow just a week before the launch of Sputnik 2. NASA described her as a female part-Samoyed terrier originally named Kudryavka (Little Curly). She was later renamed Laika, which is Russian for “Husky” or “Barker.” In the US, she was eventually dubbed “Muttnik.” She weighed about 6 kg.

According to the Associated Press, the dog was promoted to cosmonaut (a term referring to an astronaut in the Soviet or Russian space program) based on her ‘small’ size and ‘calm’ demeanour. Female dogs were considered anatomically better suited for close confinement.

What happened during the mission?

Laika was placed inside a pressurised cabin, which allowed her room to lie down or stand. There was an air regeneration system that provided oxygen, food, and water dispensed in a “gelatinised form.” NASA said that Laika was fitted with a harness, a bag to collect waste, and electrodes to monitor vital signs. Initially, when the mission began, it was indicated that Laika was agitated but was eating her food.

“There was no capability of returning a payload safely to Earth at this time, so it was planned that Laika would run out of oxygen after about 10 days of orbiting the Earth. Because of the thermal problems she probably only survived a day or two,” it said.

Smithsonian Magazine said that the noises and pressures of the flight had terrified Laika, making her heart rate increase to triple in the morning, and her breath rate quadruple. The magazine said that Laika reached orbit alive and circled the Earth in about 103 minutes. However, the heat shield in the capsule rose and caused the temperature in the capsule to rise, taking its toll on Laika. She died “soon after launch,” Russian medical doctor and space dog trainer Oleg Gazenko revealed in 1993.

Eventually, Sputnik 2 remained in orbit for five months.

The mission ended up providing scientists with the first data on the behaviour of a living organism orbiting in the space environment. Four years later, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit earth.

“Without animal testing in the early days of the human space program, the Soviet and American programs could have suffered great losses of human life. These animals performed a service to their respective countries that no human could or would have performed. They gave their lives and/or their service in the name of technological advancement, paving the way for humanity’s many forays into space,” NASA said.

This is an updated version of an explainer published in 2022.