Recalling top dog Laika, 65 years after pathbreaking space flight

Who was Laika and why was she chosen?

Laika was a stray dog picked up from the streets of Moscow just a week before the launch of Sputnik 2. According to NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), Laika was 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 a report by 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’ demeanor. The mission wanted female dogs as they were considered anatomically better suited for close confinement.

But why did the Soviet Union want to send animals to space?

It was not just the Soviet Union that experimented with animals. Before humans actually went to space, one of the theories was that humans might not be able to survive long periods of weightlessness. According to US space agency NASA, “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.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, rocket engineers selected the animals most obedient and most tolerant of loud noises and air pressure changes for the experiment.

Was Laika the first animal to be experimented with?

Interestingly, it was not, though it is often claimed to be.  That distinction goes to some fruit flies that the US launched on a mission in February 1947.

Despite Laika’s fame, she also was not the first dog in space, as the Soviet Union had launched two dogs named Dezik and Tsygan in 1951 before that. However, the dogs before Laika were used only during sub-orbital launches.

The United States launched rhesus monkeys, mice, fruit flies, and rats during the second world war, with the Soviets keeping close tabs on what the rival was doing with their V-2 and Aerobee missile projects (which sent rhesus monkeys).

Soviet rocket scientist Sergei Korolev, along with his team, used research from the American Biomedical research to experiment on mice, rats, and rabbits as one-way passengers. “They needed to gather data to design a cabin to carry a human being into space. Eventually they chose small dogs for this phase of testing. Dogs were chosen over monkeys because it was felt that they would be less fidgety in flight. A test with two dogs would allow for more accurate results. They chose females because of the relative ease of controlling waste,” NASA’s research revealed.

Before Laika, there were 36 dogs the Soviets sent into space.

Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth.

What was Sputnik 2 and what happened during the mission?

Sputnik 1, which launched on October 4, 1957, was a beach-ball-size 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 flying 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.

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 increasing to triple in the morning, and her breath rate quadrupled. The magazine said that Laika reached the orbit alive and circled the Earth in about 103 minutes. They said that the heat shield made the temperature in the capsule rise, taking its toll on Laika. She died “soon after launch,” Russian medical doctor and space dog trainer Oleg Gazenko revealed in 1993, the magazine reported.

Some say that the temperature inside the spacecraft after the fourth orbit registered over 90 degrees and there was no expectation that she made it beyond that. Eventually, without its passenger, Sputnik 2 continued to orbit for five months. The mission ended up providing scientists with the first data on the behavior of a living organism orbiting in the space environment.

Has there been more testing post Laika?

Yes, there has been. Over the past 50 years, American and Soviet scientists have used animals for testing in space, proving valuable data to scientists, despite the losses.

“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.