Laika

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Romanian postage stamp, 1957 with Laika the dog

The bitch Laika ( Russian Лайка , German Kläffer ; * probably 1954 in Moscow ; † November 3, 1957 in Sputnik 2 in earth orbit ) was the first living being that was specifically transported into orbit around the earth by humans . As part of the Soviet Sputnik 2 mission, she was sent into space on November 3, 1957 on board the spacecraft . Her return to Earth was not planned, but her early death was a surprise. The time of her death and the cause of death remained unclear for decades.

In 2002 it became public knowledge that Laika died a few hours after the rocket launched, presumably from overheating and stress. The mission is still considered a success. The findings from Sputnik 2 ultimately made the manned space flight with Yuri Gagarin possible .

Planning the mission

In the race with the United States to conquer space, on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union succeeded in bringing the first satellite into Earth orbit , Sputnik 1 . After this success, Nikita Khrushchev planned a second space mission on November 7, 1957, the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution . In order to achieve the desired propaganda effect, this time a mammal should reach space.

According to Russian sources, the official decision to launch Sputnik 2 was not made until October 10 or 12. At this point a satellite was already in the works, but it could not have been completed before December of the same year (it was later sent into space as Sputnik 3 ). So the engineers built a new, simpler satellite. In order to meet the deadline, this was designed in a great hurry and many parts were made from rough sketches. In addition to the primary goal of transporting a living passenger into space, Sputnik 2 should also be equipped to measure cosmic rays .

Laika was picked up on the streets of Moscow as a stray . She was a mixed breed dog about three years old, weighing about six kilograms. Her exact origin can no longer be determined, but it is certain that she was partly husky and partly terrier . The Soviet scientists and technicians gave it various names, including Kudrjawka (Кудрявка; Eng .: curls ). The name Laika (Лайка; dt .: Kläffer ) - after the Russian dog breed of the same name - was only given later. Other names were Tschuschka (Чушка; German: little beetle ) and Limontschik (Лимончик; German: little lemon ). The American press dubbed them Muttnik (of mutt , a crossbred dog), and animal welfare activists called Curly (dt .: Curly ) in accordance with the alternate name Kudrjawka.

Preparing the mission

Both the Soviet Union and the United States had experience with living things at great heights. Up until then, both had only sent animals on suborbital flights. Putting a living being into orbit was a new challenge. In the Soviet Union there had been a program for several years in which various animals were carried into the upper atmosphere by rockets , and the data from this was very useful in preparation for Sputnik 2 . The tests showed, for example, that dogs could cope with the stress best. In addition, the same capsules could also be used for Sputnik 2, which saved the scientists an enormous amount of time.

Three bitches were prepared for Sputnik 2: Albina, Muschka and Laika. All three have already participated in high-altitude research programs. Albina completed two suborbital flights with a test rocket and should be able to replace Laika if necessary. The instruments and life support systems were tested with Muschka. Laika was selected and trained by Russian space expert Oleg Gasenko . During the previous tests, it remained comparatively calm, even under long-lasting and intensive loads, which made it ideal for space flight. In order to get used to the small cubicle of Sputnik 2, the animals were kept in smaller and smaller cages, each for 15 to 20 days. In the confinement, they stopped excreting feces; it made them restless and their condition worsened. Even laxatives couldn't noticeably improve her condition; only long training sessions were able to do this.

The bitches were also placed in centrifuges that simulated the acceleration of a rocket flight. Special devices generated the noise and vibrations in the capsule when it was launched. Tests of this type caused the heart rate to double and the blood pressure to increase by 30 to 65  mmHg . In addition, the dogs were accustomed to a special gel with a high nutritional value, which should serve them as food in space.

According to a document from NASA , Laika was housed in the spacecraft on October 31, 1957, three days before the start of the mission. At this time of year, the temperatures at the launch site in Baikonur were extremely low. Therefore, the capsule was connected to an air conditioning system via a hose to keep the container warm. Two supervisors were hired to constantly check Laika's condition. Just before the rocket launched, Laika's fur was cleaned with a weak alcohol solution. Iodine was applied to important parts of her body and sensors were attached to monitor her body functions.

The capsule weighed 18 kg without the bitch. The pressure-regulated cabin of Sputnik 2 was padded inside and offered so much space that Laika could stand or lie down. A ventilation system supplied the cell with oxygen and a fan cooled it as soon as the internal temperature exceeded 15 ° C. Food and water were provided in gel form. Laika was given a corset and a pouch for faeces and electrodes to measure vital functions . The telemetry of the information indicated that Laika was excited but was eating.

Laika's trip

The spacesuit of Laika

On November 3, 1957 at 2:30 a.m., the rocket was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome . During the first few minutes after take-off, the sensors indicated that Laika's heart rate rose to three times the resting level. After she got into weightlessness , her pulse dropped again; however, it took three times as long as the previous tests on the ground. That indicated high stress. After about five to seven hours of flight time, the spacecraft no longer transmitted any signs of life. The animal probably died of heat death due to poor thermal insulation .

Five months later, after having orbited the earth 2570 times, the satellite was finally destroyed when it re-entered the atmosphere on April 14, 1958. The remains of Sputnik 2 burned over the Caribbean Sea .

Laika's return to earth was not included in the mission planning. The original plan was to give Laika poisoned food after ten days in orbit to save her an agonizing death when re-entering the atmosphere. The Soviet Union made contradicting statements. So she should have died of lack of oxygen or, as originally planned, poisoned. The real cause of death was only made public for decades.

At the time, there were many rumors about the exact course of her death. In 1999, various Russian sources stated that Laika died after four days when the cabin overheated. In 2002, the biologist Dmitri Malashenkov from the Institute for Biological Issues in Moscow, one of the scientists involved in the Sputnik-2 program, reported at the World Space Congress in Houston , Texas that Laika died of overheating and stress between five and seven hours after take-off . Before that, the measuring devices reported an increase in temperature and humidity. In a document that Malashenkov presented, it was said that it was practically impossible to build reliable temperature control in such a short time.

Some assumed that although the capsule had successfully separated after entering Earth orbit, the final rocket stage did not detach as planned. Therefore, the temperature control system could not work properly, which led to an increase in temperature and the death of the bitch. In fact, Sputnik 2 was deliberately designed so that the last stage remained connected to the capsule. The elongated body thus created stabilizes its position in the orbit by itself ( gravitational stabilization ).

The reason for the rise in temperature was probably that part of the heat shield came off the capsule. Due to this defect, the control system was unable to reduce the internal temperature again. As a result, the temperature in the capsule rose to 40 ° C, which caused Laika's premature death.

Reactions

Laika's spaceflight caused a stir around the world. Just a month earlier, the Soviet Union had sent the first artificial satellite into space. This had shown the West how far the Soviet space program had already progressed and triggered the so-called Sputnik shock . Sputnik 2 was actually a lot heavier than its predecessor, but could still be brought almost twice as far into space - and with a living passenger on board. The United States had not yet launched a single satellite and was in danger of falling further behind in the race. As a result, work on its own Vanguard satellite was advanced in the United States . Within a few weeks, the American scientists constructed their artificial satellite under pressure similar to that of the Russian engineers. However, the launcher exploded on launch, another setback for the US.

Until Laika's flight, it was not known whether living things could even survive in weightlessness . In this respect, the few hours in which Sputnik 2 transmitted the first biomedical data from space were a milestone in space history . However, the mission was less scientifically motivated than propaganda.

The fact that Laika's death was planned in advance during space travel sparked a worldwide debate about animal testing and the abuse of animals in the name of scientific advancement. In the UK , the National Canine Defense League periodically urged UK dog owners to observe minutes of silence. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals began protests before the Soviet Union announced the mission's success. Animal rights groups called on the public to demonstrate in front of Soviet embassies. However, these protests were to a large extent politically motivated and instrumentalized.

The negative reactions in the West worried the Soviet Union. The animal welfare debate became a danger to significantly reduce the fame of the project. For this reason, the political leadership of the Soviet Union was keen to leak little information about the actual course of the mission. Instead, government spokesmen and envoys targeted the public with false information in order to calm the mood in the West. So there was no such controversy in the Eastern Bloc. Even the Soviet publications in the following years did not question the decision to let the bitch die in space.

After the end of the Cold War , however, numerous employees in the Sputnik project expressed their regret over Laika's death. Oleg Gasenko, formerly Laika's responsible instructor and leading rocket technician, commented publicly on Laika's death in 1998: “The more time goes by, the more sorry I am. We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the dog's death. "

Commemoration

A monument in Crete
This soil sample from Mars was called Laika .

Laika's flight into space made her one of the most famous dogs of all. In November 1997, the Institute for Aviation and Space Medicine in Moscow presented a monument in memory of those who died among the cosmonauts. Laika can also be seen in one corner of the plaque. It has also been featured on various postage stamps in different countries around the globe, chocolates and cigarettes have been named after it, and a large number of memorabilia are offered at auctions these days.

On March 9, 2005, a soil sample was examined by the Opportunity Mars probe. The heads of mission unofficially named this piece of Martian soil Laika . It is located near the Vostok crater in Meridiani Planum .

2008 biographical was graphic novel Laika by Nick Abadzis with the Eisner Award as Best Publication for Teens excellent.

Likewise in April 2008 a monument for Laika was unveiled in Moscow, which shows the bitch standing on a stylized rocket.

The Spanish pop group Mecano dedicated a song to Laika on their 1988 album “Descanso dominical”.

The Finnish surf rock band Laika & The Cosmonauts, which existed from 1987 to 2008, and the British alternative rock band Laika, founded in 1993, and the German publishing house Laika were named after the bitch .

The Danish music producer Trentemøller remembered Laika in the video for his hit Moan (2007).

In his poem Laika, Günter Kunert presents her fate as a reminder to humanity.

The flight of the bitch Laika was critically discussed in 1958 in the calypso title Russian Satellite by Mighty Sparrow .

The title of the film Mein Leben als Hund by Swedish director Lasse Hallström from 1985 alludes to the main character's reflection on Laika's situation in comparison with his own problems.

In the Antarctic, Lajka Island is named after the bitch.

The documentary film Space Dogs (2019) tells of the legend that Laika returned to earth as a ghost and now roams the streets of Moscow alongside her descendants.

Further experiments with animals and other biological subjects in space

Even more dogs took off into space from the Soviet spaceport Baikonur. First the dogs returned Belka and Strelka ( Russian Белка и Стрелка . Dt Biddy and little arrows ) on 20 August 1960 aboard Sputnik 5 back alive.

The experimental dogs Ptschjolka ( Russian Пчёлка ; German bee ) and Muschka ( Russian Мушка ; German mosquito ) as well as other animals were on board the spacecraft 3 (Sputnik 6) launched on December 1, 1960 . a. Insects, and also plants. It dealt with specific questions related to the behavior of humans and the behavior of plants under cosmic conditions. Plants are also important because they could be important for the nutrition of space travelers. The return of the landing capsule failed, however.

On March 9, 1961, the next animal experiment followed with space ship 4 (Sputnik 7). The dog Tschernuschka ( Russian Чернушка , black-eared) was in his cabin . It was housed with other biological objects. This spaceship returned to earth intact with all living beings.

The spacecraft 5 (Sputnik 9) started on March 25, 1961 with the test dog Swjosdotschka ( Russian Звёздочка ; German: asterisk ) and other biological objects, which returned unscathed after a circumnavigation of the earth on command.

Two satellite experiments with animals have also been carried out in the USA. On June 3, 1959, four mice were carried into space with the Discoverer III satellite . It was planned that the capsule would separate from the satellite and parachute back to Earth. The attempt failed, the satellite was lost in space. In the Mercury program , the chimpanzee Enos orbited the earth twice on November 29, 1961 on the Mercury Atlas 5 mission , returned successfully and died in November 1962 of unrelated diarrhea.

literature

  • Chris Dubbs: Space Dogs: Pioneers of Space Travel . Writer's Showcase Press, New York 2003, ISBN 0-595-26735-1 .
  • GG Gowortschin: Soviets in Space - An historical Survey . Spaceflight, May 1965.
  • Roman Marek: Space dogs in the Cold War: Laika as an experimental animal, propaganda weapon and heroine . In: Rainer Pöppinghege (Ed.): Animals in War. From antiquity to the present. Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76749-3 , pp. 251-268.
  • VN Tschernow, VI Jakowlew: Scientific research during the flight of an animal in an artificial earth satellite. In: Artificial Earth Satellite. Number 1, 1958, OCLC 220988399 .
  • Matthias founder: Lexicon of manned space travel. Rockets, spacecraft and astronauts . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-287-3 .
  • Karen Duve, Thies Völker: Lexicon of famous animals . Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-8218-0505-6 .
  • Flieger-Jahrbuch - An international survey of the aerospace industry. Heinz AF Schmidt, VEB Verlag for Transport, Berlin 1963, pp. 16-17.
  • Robert Kluge: Laika. The image that gave the «Sputnik shock» a face . In: Gerhard Paul (Hrsg.): The century of pictures 1949 until today . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-525-30012-1 , pp. 202-209.

Web links

Commons : Laika  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roman Marek: Space dogs in the Cold War: Laika as an experimental animal, propaganda weapon and heroine . In: Rainer Pöppinghege (Ed.): Animals in War. From antiquity to the present. 1st edition. Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76749-3 , p. 251-268 .
  2. ↑ Nick Abadzis: Laika . Atrium Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-85535-002-5 .
  3. ↑ 2008 Eisner Award winners ( memento from November 14, 2010 on WebCite ), Comic-Con.org.
  4. ↑ NBCNews: Space Dog monument opens in Russia
  5. ↑ youtube.com: Music video for Trentemøller - Moan
  6. ↑ Laika by Günter Kunert on planetlyrik.de
  7. ↑ Russian Satellite on youtube.com
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on April 2, 2006 .