Soviet Union Space Dogs

The stories of some of the dogs from the experiment

1) Dezik (Дезик) and Tsygan (Цыган, “Gypsy”)

They were the first dogs to make a sub-orbital flight on the 22nd July 1951. They managed to travel a maximum altitude of 110 km which is about about 68 miles from the surface of the earth. This distance from earth is called the Karman line where scientists say is where the Earth’s atmosphere meets outer space.

Dezik made another sub-orbital flight in September 1951 with a different dog called Lisa as the partner. Neither of them survived the flight this time. That’s when Tsygan was retired and adopted as a pet by one of the Soviet physicist Anatoli Blagonravov.

2) Smelaya (Смелая) & Malyshka (Малышка)

Smelaya (Смелая) means either “Brave” or “Courageous”. She did something that was quite the opposite of her name and most probably that was the reason why she is still remembered. I mean its not her fault being called courageous, she didn’t chose the name nor her situation.

So a day before her flight in September, she ran away.

But I guess she didn’t make it far because they managed to find her and still managed to send her to space with her partner for the mission called Malyshka (Малышка, “Babe”). Now did she survived the flight? It is unknown.

3) Laika (Лайка, “Barker”)

Finally there is Laika (Лайка, “Barker”) who became the first living Earth-born creature (other than microbes) to be in orbit. She boarded a satellite called the Sputnik 2 on the 3rd November 1957. That was also the first satelite to be in orbit.

The American media dubbed her as “Muttnik” because it sounds Russian just like the satellite and because she was a mutt. But, people aren’t that easily offended at the time compared to our generation.

Her mission was intended to last 10 days but sadly she didn’t make it. They said that she died peacefully but that was not the truth.

Only by October of 2002 was the truth finally told.

The flight was meant to test the safety of space travel for humans. Sadly. it was actually a guaranteed suicide mission for the dog. The technology of the time had not advanced far enough for a return trip. Thus they knew something will go wrong somewhere along the mission.

After some time, mission control indicated that Laika did calmed down and was trying to survive. She managed to start eating. But sadly she still died between five and seven hours into the flight because of stress and overheating in the capsule.

The overheating was because of an exterior damage that was caused during the launch phase and caused the temperature inside the capsule to rise around 40 °C (104 °F).

The saddest part of her story is that Sputnik 2 continued to orbit the Earth for another 5 months and later burned up when it reentered the atmosphere in April 1958. Burning along Laika’s body.