Animals, conquerors of space

A one-way mission

Her name meant "barker" in Russian. When she left Earth Laika didn’t know that she would never return. Soviet scientists were not concerned about what happened to the little dog. Laika’s mission was due to last seven days, but she died within seven or eight hours of blast-off from the Baikonour launch pad in the Soviet Union. The planners had thought of everything, oxygen, water, food, but not the reality of the terrible heat created by air friction as the rocket travelled through the atmosphere. Laika’s heart could not stand the rapid rise in temperature, which soon rose to over 50° Celsius (120°+ Fahrenheit). These furnace like conditions were due to the heat from the reactors before lift-off, followed by the rapid acceleration and finally weightlessness, so well described by Hergé in Explorers on the Moon.

The heroine of all stray dogs

Nothing had prepared Laika for her destiny in space. She was born in the streets of Moscow, and was part of a pack of strays known for their resistance to stress. Wandering dogs learned to survive in difficult conditions such as climate and hostile humans. The strays in Moscow are known as hardy survivors. Laika was captured with two other dogs, Albina and Mushka. In fact, Albina was the first of the three sent into space. She flew in a rocket to an altitude of 85 km (53 miles), but her flight did not orbit the earth. Since 1951 a number of anonymous canine heroes had this type of experience on board experimental rockets, but it was Laika who became the heroine of strays.

The moscow dog era

The first dogs sent into space made one thing clear to Soviet engineers. Dogs sent into space would have to be female. If we look at the story of Snowy’s life we can see many indications why they were more suitable. Female dogs are much more disciplined than their male counterparts. After Laika, two more dogs, Belka and Strelka, flew into space, and after 24 hours in orbit, were lucky enough to return to Earth alive. Mushka who was a companion of Laika and Albina, left for her space conquest in 1960 on board Sputnik 6. She wasn’t as lucky as Belka and Strelka because the satellite disintegrated during atmospheric re-entry.

The School for space dogs

As shown in Destination Moon, space travelers, known as astronauts in America and cosmonauts in Russia, have to undergo intensive training. Stray dogs, caught in the streets of Moscow, were consigned to the military medical institute in that city. Firstly they were weighed. 6 kg (13 lbs.) was considered the perfect weight. Then came acceleration tests in a cage attached to an arm swung in a circle, to simulate the effects of weightlessness. The dogs also had to learn to carry measuring equipment on their bodies. Once aloft, these instruments would send back signals from measurements of the dog’s health each time they passed over the Baikonaur space centre.

Sky visitors

Even after Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space in 1961, animals continued their pioneering work. In 1966, two dogs, Veterok and Ogolyok, set a new record by being in space for 22 days on board the space capsule Cosmos 110. The Americans preferred to send chimpanzees into space, because they are more similar to humans. There have also been many other animals in space, including cats, flies, rats, spiders, earthworms, newts, ants, roaches…even snails, who never thought they would travel so for or so fast, with their houses on their backs! In these cases, though, it was no longer a question of opening the way for future human cosmonauts. Scientists were now studying the effects of weightlessness on the organs and bodies of living beings.

Jean-Loup Chretien pays homage to Laika and... Snowy

The French cosmonaut Jean-Loup Chrétien went into space three times, in 1982 and 1988. He makes no secret of how he was inspired by Tintin’s lunar adventure, "More than anything else, the precision of the descriptions impressed me. I am certain that these two books inspired young people worldwide to new aspirations." Speaking of Laika, he said: "Animals have made more contributions to the conquest of space than we might have expected. The emotionally inspiring image of the little dog Laika should not be forgotten. She is a symbol for all those animals who were used to help man conquer space." In April 2008 a monument featuring Laika standing on a space rocket was unveiled in Moscow. The statue faces the Moscow military medical institute. A few steps away, opposite the institute, is a bookstore where Tintin books are sold. There are a lot of stories that can be told about Snowy and Laika!