Comrade, did you know, too, that you were a star? Laika rode a rocket into Earth orbit, 2,000 miles above Moscow streets she knew. Laila was a stray female dog, who was used in a soviet launch after the initial launch of Sputnik 1. Sputnik 2 would go into orbit with the final stage of the rocket attached, and engineers believed the ship’s 1,120-pound payload, six times as heavy as Sputnik 1, could be kept within limits by feeding its passenger only once. Recalls reports that a female physician broke protocol by feeding Laika before liftoff. They expected Laika to die from oxygen deprivation—a painless death within 15 seconds—after seven days in space. On November 3 at 5:30 a.m., the ship lifted off with G-forces reaching five times normal gravity levels. The noises and pressures of flight terrified Laika: Her heartbeat rocketed to triple the normal rate, and her breath rate quadrupled. She reached orbit alive, circling the Earth in about 103 minutes. Unfortunately, loss of the heat shield made the temperature in the capsule rise unexpectedly, taking its toll on Laika. During and after the flight, the Soviet Union kept up the fiction that Laika survived for several days. Laikas name continues to be remembered. #laika #laikathespacedog | You did not know how special you were. | I like to imagine you above us in the black heavens walking twice about in a circle before lying down on your celestial bed and dreaming of your own private sea of tranquility. | Our hero of destiny, our victim of invention, our tiny lady of progress. | I like to think that you saw our humble planet from above and understood. | An angel flung to space, small and perfect and beautiful, wreathed in stars, in your alien ship from the future. | Comrade, did you know that you, too, were a star?