"ABS" tells about the fate of the dog Laika, which in November 1957 for the first time in the history of mankind went beyond the atmosphere. The triumph did not work - the world greeted with sadness a new breakthrough into space. Laika died after just a few hours of flight from overheating, much earlier than planned. In the USSR, there were practically no discussions of this topic.
"Hero of the Day" - this title could be read on the front page of the "ABS" newspaper on November 5, 1957. The unique photograph showed a dog in a spacesuit, like an astronaut, inside a capsule the size of a washing machine. Tongue stick out like she was playing in the park. The article on the inner pages said: "A new Russian satellite with a dog on board revolves around the Earth." And then they talked about the success of the USSR in more detail: “On Sunday, the USSR launched a second artificial satellite, Sputnik-2, into space. On board are transmitters, surveillance devices and a living creature - a husky named Laika. Based on heart rate and blood pressure measurements, the conditions the dog was in during the 24 hours of space flight were satisfactory."
The new version of the satellite, launched by the Soviet Union on November 3, 1957, was the second ship in history to orbit the Earth, and Laika, its only passenger, was the first living being in space. This global event instantly took the covers of newspapers around the globe. “This animal, currently the main character on the planet, has already flown with an oxygen cylinder in a rocket at an altitude of 120 kilometers, from where it descended by parachute. The descent lasted for an hour,”the ABS newspaper said.
The USSR decided to use dogs (rather than monkeys, as in other experiments) because they are "more resilient, adaptable better and quickly get used to a new owner," as explained in 1957 by Ivan Kasyan, head of the medical team that participated in the mission. In addition, it was easier for the bitch to fit the bougie needed for the animal to relieve itself, and they are also smaller than the males, which can be a deciding factor in a small capsule. Laika was chosen from among three other candidates who passed the test locked in a small cabin in a spacesuit for several days. All this time, the feeding took place automatically: every few hours they were given jelly, which consisted of vitamins, proteins, fats, carbohydrates and water. Two-year-old Laika turned out to be the calmest and, moreover, the most photogenic,which was important in the context of the propaganda war with the United States during the Cold War.
Return "safe and sound"
For the USSR, the experiment was successful for two reasons. First, it was a victory on the international stage, as the Russians competed with the Americans in the conquest of space. Therefore, both of them were interested not so much in scientific achievements as in the rivalry for world domination. And secondly, that Laika's first space flight set the stage for cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin to become the first person to travel four years later, on April 12, 1961. Unlike the famous dog, the traveler this time returned to Earth safe and sound.
It was originally planned that the ill-fated animal circled the Earth for a whole week, but it was not envisaged that it would come back alive. The latest information has not been released to the public. Indeed, the public learned about Laika's suffering and the real cause of her death a few hours after takeoff (only four revolutions around the globe) only 45 years later. In the 1950s, the Soviet news agency TASS reported only good news. “The dog is expected to return safe and sound”, “it has enough food for its entire stay in space” and “it has been trained to distribute food intelligently” are just a few of the statements that the ABS newspaper received from executives missions that hid from the world the fact that Laika had already died.
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A month after Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2 was launched with a thermal insulation system. They built it in haste so that space travel coincided with the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the revolution. Two years later, after the Russians and Americans announced their intention to launch artificial satellites into space, the USSR was able to overtake the United States, which clearly lagged behind in the space race.
Unlucky trip
Unaware of all this politics, Laika set off at a speed of 8 thousand meters per second inside a sealed device equipped with a whole arsenal of devices that the dog, apparently, did not know how to use. Among other things: instruments for measuring solar radiation, cosmic rays, temperature, pressure and vital functions in space, as well as transmitters of the received data to Earth. And finally, two radio transmitters, air conditioning and animal feeding.
The last device was almost of no use to Laika, who died five to seven hours after launch, much earlier than planned. The satellite took off from Baikonur at half past six in the morning on November 3, 1957 and reached orbit without incident. Adilia Kotelevskaya, who trained Laika, only many years later admitted that the dog's heartbeat accelerated to 260 beats per minute, which is three times more than usual, and soon returned to normal. However, two or three hours later, the real torment began. The spacecraft began to heat up, because when entering orbit, the last stage did not separate, and all the heat was directed into the cabin, where Laika was. In addition, the temperature rose from the sun's rays and due to a malfunction of the hastily installed thermal insulation system.
All these reasons were not disclosed until 2002, when at the International Astronautics Congress in Houston, one of the program leaders, Dimitri Malashenko, said that the dog's death was caused by dehydration, overheating due to damage to the ship's thermal control system and stress. For these three reasons, her heart stopped quickly. According to him, the agony was supposed to be terrible, and the USSR still hid the truth from the world.
In 1957, the USSR announced that Laika died on the eighth day in orbit due to tranquilizers supplied with food, which were supposed to ensure a painless death in case of unforeseen circumstances. The USSR assured that all this time, scientists were receiving normal vital signs. "The first living creature that officially went into space, did not live a happy week, circling above the ground, but died an agonizing death," the BBC reported from Houston.
Ethical issues
Laika's body inside the satellite circled the Earth until April 14, 1958, when it entered the Earth's atmosphere. All this time and in subsequent years, no one raised the issue of the ethical side of Laika's death. The government of the USSR wanted to make the dog a kind of national hero, and not a victim of science.
The press in the late 1950s was more concerned about reports of the political significance of this event than about the suffering of the animal. The ABS correspondent in New York reported on the protests at the UN headquarters, caused by "the fact of Laika's presence aboard Sputnik 2." But then he added: "I do not claim that the dog was sent into space out of a great love for animals, but it is more important to understand what the United States and the free world can do in opposition to the exact and horribly frequent achievements of the USSR in the field of astronautics."
In the USSR, there were practically no disputes and discussions. Neither the media, nor the press, nor the public tried to dispute anything in the following years. Only in 1998, when the communist bloc had already disintegrated, one of the scientists involved in sending the dog into space, Oleg Gazenko, publicly expressed his doubts: “The more time passes, the more I regret it. We shouldn't have done this. We didn't learn much on this mission to justify the death of the dog.”
The controversy was livelier in other, non-communist countries. In the UK, for example, in the same year, the National Dog Defense League asked dog owners to honor Laika's memory with a minute of silence. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals received angry reports even before the launch of the satellite. There were other protests as well. Despite this, the Russians announced in 1957 that "the next passengers could be monkeys."
I. Viana
