After the success of Sputnik 1 in October 1957, Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, wanted a spacecraft launched on … See more

Laika was found as a stray wandering the streets of Moscow. Soviet scientists chose to use Moscow strays since they assumed that such animals had already learned to endure conditions of extreme cold and hunger. Sh… See more

Yazdovsky made the final selection of dogs and their designated roles. Laika was to be the "flight dog" – a sacrifice to science on a one-way mission to space. Albina, who had already flown twice on a high-altitude test rocket, … See more

Accounts of the time of launch vary from source to source, given as 05:30:42 Moscow Time or 07:22 Moscow Time.
At peak acceleration, Laika's respiration increased to between three and four times the pre-lau… See more

Due to the overshadowing issue of the Soviet–U.S. Space Race, the ethical issues raised by this experiment went largely unaddressed for some time. As newspaper clippings from 1957 show, the press was initially focu… See more

Laika is memorialised in the form of a statue and plaque at Star City, the Russian Cosmonaut training facility. Created in 1997, Laika is positioned behind the cosmonauts with her ears erect. The Monument … See more