The tragedy of Laika, the first animal to orbit the earth

Space dogs paved the way for human astronauts. Was it worth it?

In March, I visited the Lowell Observatory — the astronomical research site where Pluto was first discovered — in Flagstaff, Arizona. I stood in line to squint through telescopes at Jupiter and the surface of the moon before the night turned cloudy and drove me inside the Astronomy Discovery Center museum. And like all museum visits, it ended in the gift shop.

This one was full of space paraphernalia, astronaut dolls, and NASA shirts. But what caught my eye were the dog plushies in silver spacesuits, name embroidered in blue on the front: Laika. She also came in the form of a backpack clip. It might have been cute if it weren’t so profoundly sad.

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Because on November 3, 1957 — 68 years ago this week — Soviet researchers launched the real Laika, a small black-and-white terrier mix, into space aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft, where she became the first living thing to orbit the earth, proving that life could survive both launch and outer space conditions for extended periods of time. But the technology that would facilitate her safe re-entry did not exist yet, so there was never any hope that she would come back alive.

”After placing Laika in the container and before closing the hatch,” recalled Soviet engineer Yevgeniy Shabarov, “we kissed her nose and wished her bon voyage, knowing that she would not survive the flight.”

The scientists intended for her to die painlessly after eating poisoned food after a week in orbit, but that’s not how the story turned out.

Soviet physicians had implanted sensors into Laika’s body before her doomed flight to track her vital signs while she was in space. During the launch, her breathing rate quadrupled and her heart rate tripled. She reached orbit alive, alone, and terrified, peering out through the window at the planet far below.

But then the life support capsule in her spacecraft malfunctioned, causing temperatures in the cramped cabin to spike to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Somewhere between five and seven hours after launch, Laika died of hyperthermia and stress — overheating and panic. She had no way to understand what was happening to her.

American astronaut Scott Kelly has described space as smelling like burning metal. What must it smell like to a dog, with a nose at least 10,000 times more powerful than a human being’s?