This shirt in the LOLMart (plus several cups of coffee) sent me on a researching rampage this morning on the story of Laika, the Soviet space dog.  Now I kind of feel like crying. Originally picked up as a stray, Laika was the first living animal to be sent into orbit around the Earth - and also the first animal to die in orbit - in the Sputnik 2 satellite.  While it widely believed that she perished after running out of oxygen on the sixth day of the flight, it wasn’t revealed until 2002 that she actually died about six hours after liftoff from an overheated cabin.  Her mission was to prove that life could survive the weightlessness of space orbit and make strides toward manned space flights.  Launched in November 1957, Laika and the Sputnik 2 orbited Earth nearly 2600 times before disintegrating (with Laika inside) upon re-entry in April 1958.  The craft was never designed to be recovered. Pardon the informal language, but homegirl got the rawest of deals.  The Soviet scientists rushed the building of Sputnik 2 (barely four weeks for total construction) to appease then-Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.  He’d wanted a launch on November 7, 1958 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, but the more-sophisticated Sputnik 3 wouldn’t be ready until December.  Malfunction was inevitable, as some of the thermal insulation tore loose when the satellite’s nose cone disengaged.  The temperature inside the cabin would reach up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. In 2002 Dimitri Malashenkov, one of the Soviet scientists involved with the Sputnik 2, would go on to state “it turned out that it was practically impossible to create a reliable temperature control system in such limited time constraints.”  Another member of the team responsible, Oleg Gazenko, openly admitted in 1998 that “[they] did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog.”  Well, at least that’s the only time that shoddy Soviet construction killed a space traveler.  Oh wait, there’s also the story of Soyuz 1 from 1967 that killed Vladimir Komarov, AND his final transmission was recorded.  But I suppose that’s research for another day…
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This shirt in the LOLMart (plus several cups of coffee) sent me on a researching rampage this morning on the story of Laika, the Soviet space dog.  Now I kind of feel like crying.

Originally picked up as a stray, Laika was the first living animal to be sent into orbit around the Earth - and also the first animal to die in orbit - in the Sputnik 2 satellite.  While it widely believed that she perished after running out of oxygen on the sixth day of the flight, it wasn’t revealed until 2002 that she actually died about six hours after liftoff from an overheated cabin.  Her mission was to prove that life could survive the weightlessness of space orbit and make strides toward manned space flights.  Launched in November 1957, Laika and the Sputnik 2 orbited Earth nearly 2600 times before disintegrating (with Laika inside) upon re-entry in April 1958.  The craft was never designed to be recovered.

Pardon the informal language, but homegirl got the rawest of deals.  The Soviet scientists rushed the building of Sputnik 2 (barely four weeks for total construction) to appease then-Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.  He’d wanted a launch on November 7, 1958 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, but the more-sophisticated Sputnik 3 wouldn’t be ready until December.  Malfunction was inevitable, as some of the thermal insulation tore loose when the satellite’s nose cone disengaged.  The temperature inside the cabin would reach up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

In 2002 Dimitri Malashenkov, one of the Soviet scientists involved with the Sputnik 2, would go on to state “it turned out that it was practically impossible to create a reliable temperature control system in such limited time constraints.”  Another member of the team responsible, Oleg Gazenko, openly admitted in 1998 that “[they] did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog.” 

Well, at least that’s the only time that shoddy Soviet construction killed a space traveler.  Oh wait, there’s also the story of Soyuz 1 from 1967 that killed Vladimir Komarov, AND his final transmission was recorded.  But I suppose that’s research for another day…

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  1. nickbiscardi posted this