Friday, November 3 marks exactly sixty years since the first flight of a living creature, the dog Laika, into space. Her flight made history but she also became the first earthling to die in orbit - of overheating some five to seven hours after launch. This writes by TASS.
Following the launch of the first artificial satellite of the Earth, the Sputnik, on October 4, 1957, the Soviet leadership decided to consolidate the success that had technological and, on top of that, political significance for the country.
Nikita Khrushchev, who occupied the post of First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee, ordered a second space launch that was to take place on the eve of the 40th anniversary since the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, which the Soviet Union would mark on November 7, 1957.
Sergei Korolyov, the Designer-in-Chief of OKB-1 design bureau [Energiya corporation at present], who supervised research and development of the first launch vehicle and the first Sputnik, objected to Khrushchev’s initiative, saying a replication of the first launch would be senseless.
Along with it, completion of all the works necessary for sending into space the so-called Object D - a sophisticated research satellite that eventually was taken into orbit on May 15, 1958, as Sputnik-3 - was impossible, he said.
However, the USSR’s top decision-makers issued an official order on October 12, 1957, to launch a second satellite carrying a dog aboard. By that time, the Soviet Union had gained experience in launching animals on geophysical rockets into the stratosphere. The special airproof compartments the animals were placed into assured one or two hours of their living ability.
A special laboratory at the Soviet Air Force’s Aviation Medicine Research Institute that prepared animals for flights completed the training of ten dogs by October 1957. The researchers selected stray dogs for high-altitude missions, since they were more enduring than pedigree dogs.
Three dogs were selected as candidates for the flight aboard Sputnik-2. Preference was given to a two-year-old Laika that weighed about 6 kilograms. Dr. Vladimir Yazovsky who stood at the head of medical and biological research with the aid of rockets gave the final approval to her.
Albina that had already made two flights was chosen as Laika’s backup. She was pregnant and the researchers took pity on her. The third dog, Mukha, was used for testing the gauging equipment and life support systems.
Dr. Yazdovsky gave surgeries to all the three dogs - he implanted gauges for measuring blood pressure into their carotid arteries and into chests for tracing their electrocardiograms and rate of respiration.
Laika’s plight was clear from the very beginning - she was doomed to die, since there was no opportunity to return Satellite-2 to the earth. Technologies for return missions of space probes did not exist at the time yet.
