A journey of no return
The tragic story of the first dog in space
On November 3, 1957, a small stray dog from the streets of Moscow made history. Laika, a mixed-breed dog, was the first living creature to be sent into orbit around the Earth by humans.
With his company Virgin Galactic, British billionaire Richard Branson has been regularly taking wealthy customers into space since 2023. Elon Musk’s SpaceX offers 10-day trips to the International Space Station (ISS). He himself dreams of colonizing Mars. In view of such technological progress, it is hard to imagine how space travel began more than 60 years ago. Manned spaceflight sounded like science fiction back then. It became reality in small steps. At first, animals were sacrificed for this scientific dream, mainly chimpanzees in the US and dogs in the Soviet Union. Among them, the Moscow street dog Laika plays a special role. Her story is a mix of scientific ambition, political propaganda, and ethical reflection.
It is the Cold War. In the race with the United States to conquer space, the Soviet Union has just successfully launched the first man-made object into Earth’s orbit with the Sputnik 1 mission in early October 1957. Although the 58-centimeter (22 inch) sphere only transmits a “beep, beep, beep” to Earth for three weeks, the Soviets are ahead of the game. But Head of State Nikita Khrushchev wants to extend the lead and therefore orders a second satellite to be sent into space just one month later, in time for the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution on November 7, 1957. As an additional propaganda effect, this time a mammal is to reach space – and thus be used to investigate whether a living being can survive a stay in space. The ultimate goal is to send the first human into space.
To that end, the Soviet Union launched a total of 48 dogs into space in dozens of experiments between 1951 and 1961. Twenty of them did not survive the tests, according to the news magazine SPIEGEL. “Scientists developed pressure suits for dogs, put glass space helmets on them, and accustomed them to the confines of space capsules, violent vibrations, and hellish rocket noise. The animals even had to endure acceleration tests to learn what it feels like to have five times their body weight pressing down on them.”
The scientists at the Institute of Aviation in Moscow prefer to use stray dogs for their experiments, as they are considered particularly tough and experienced in the struggle for survival. And the dogs must be females, because they don’t lift their legs to pee, which would be impossible in the tailor-made space suits and the confines of the space capsule. Laika, a three-year-old husky-spitz mix, is caught in a net by dog catchers hired by the institute. With her featherweight of only six kilograms, she meets the requirements of the space program exactly. She also proves to be particularly docile and obedient – and, with her alert gaze and beautiful black-and-white patterned face, she is extremely photogenic. This is good for PR on television and in print media. The Soviet scientists and technicians initially name the dog Kudrjavka (meaning “little curly one”). But when she is later presented to the public and barks, she is renamed Laika, meaning “barker.” The American press calls her Muttnik (a play on words combining Sputnik and mutt, a mixed-breed dog).
Two other female dogs are being prepared for the upcoming space mission alongside Laika. The three test animals are strapped into centrifuges to simulate the acceleration of the rocket and locked in increasingly smaller cages, where they have to endure weeks of rocket noise and unappetizing gel as space food in order to get used to staying in the metal cylinder, which is only 80 centimeters (31 inches) long. As a result, the animals’ pulse rate doubles, their blood pressure rises immensely, and their metabolism shuts down, which is why they are given laxatives. Probes are implanted under the bitches’ skin, and part of the carotid artery is moved to the outside of the skin for better fixation of the measuring devices. “This is to facilitate the measurement of pulse and blood pressure fluctuations that were to be expected under acceleration stress and in zero gravity,” according to the German TV documentary “Die Kosmonauten-Hunde von Baikonur” (The Cosmonaut Dogs of Baikonur) from 2017. “Finally, a rocket nose cone with a pressure equalization cabin was delivered to the institute. The test dogs gradually accepted it as their new home.”
Laika endures all this torment with the greatest composure. “She was able to cope with loud noises just as confidently as she did with a special device for defecating. This gave her an advantage over the other female dogs,” reports the German online medium “Wissen” (Knowledge). Space expert Oleg Gasenko ultimately selects Laika for the space flight—and thus sends her to her certain death. For the four weeks remaining before the launch date are far too short for the designers to develop a reliable return system for the spacecraft. To spare Laika the agonizing death by burning up on re-entry into the atmosphere, they consider cutting off the oxygen in the capsule after seven days or feeding her poisoned food. None of this is implemented.
According to a NASA document, Laika is placed in the rocket capsule at the launch site, the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on October 31, 1957, three days before the mission launch. The pressure-regulated cabin is padded on the inside and offers enough space for Laika to stand or lie down, but not to turn around. She is positioned so that her face is facing a small peephole through which the scientists can observe her – and through which she can also look outside. A ventilation system supplies the cell with oxygen, and a fan cools it as soon as the internal temperature exceeds 15 °C (59°F). Laika remains completely calm in her isolation cell, just as she had learned to do in the preparatory tests, according to the 2023 documentary film Laika: The Tragic Story of the First Dog in Space by Geno Samuel. The film meticulously traces the preparations and the mission itself. Shortly before launch, a pressure increase in the rocket capsule has to be remedied. Laika has already used up all her space food supplies. But since the rocket is about to launch, only a little water can be refilled.
On November 3, 1957, at 5:30 p.m. local time, Laika begins her journey of no return—observed live by scientists via camera. During the first few minutes after launch, sensors show that the little dog’s heart begins to race and her blood pressure rises to 260. Only after she reaches Earth’s orbit and thus weightlessness does her pulse drop again. However, during the first two orbits, the temperature in the capsule begins to rise dangerously. After about five to seven hours of flight time and three to four orbits, the measuring instruments detect no more signs of life. What fear and then panic the little dog must have felt... all alone, trapped in the cramped spacecraft capsule and surrounded by the roar and vibration of the engines. Her dead body continues to orbit the Earth in the satellite for another five months and 2,750 times until it burns up with the satellite upon re-entry into the atmosphere on April 14, 1958.
Due to Laika’s participation, Western animal rights activists had been voicing criticism since the mission was first announced. The Soviet leadership therefore keeps the dog’s death secret for a whole week. For decades afterwards, they continue to provide contradictory and false information about Laika’s fate. One version is that the dog successfully completed the mission after a week, but then died quickly and “peacefully” after a final meal laced with a strong poison. Although there are rumors that Laika simply ran out of air in the capsule, the truth only comes to light in 2002 when biologist Dmitri Malashenkov, one of the scientists involved in the Sputnik 2 program, reveales it during a conference in Houston, Texas. The documentary films by German TV and Geno Samuel mentioned in this text show that, due to faulty technology, the orbit is more elliptical than planned, so that the satellite remains closer to and longer facing the sun. This overwhelms the cooling system, and the temperature in the capsule rises to 41 °C (108 °F). This is more than Laika’s small body can withstand. She does not die “peacefully,” but rather an agonizing death from heat stroke.
Nevertheless, there are further space missions with dogs after Laika, some of which even return alive. The female dogs Belka and Strelka become famous when they are the first to return safely to Earth in August 1960 after orbiting the Earth 18 times with 24 hours aboard the now further developed Sputnik 5. In 1961, Strelka gives birth to puppies, one of which Soviet leader Khrushchev gives to US President’s wife Jackie Kennedy as a present - a succesful media stunt.
In the same year, on April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to orbit the Earth aboard Vostok 1. Two years later, the first female cosmonaut follows, Valentina Tereshkova. Laika’s sacrifice was not in vain, say those who view her suicide mission in purely scientific terms. It was only through her flight that it was proven that living beings can survive in zero gravity. In this respect, they say, the few hours during which Sputnik 2 transmitted the world’s first biomedical data from space were also a milestone in the history of space travel. Her mission led to improvements in life support systems and paved the way for manned spaceflight. Laika will forever be remembered as their pioneer.
The dog herself would certainly have preferred to roam the streets of Moscow and continue living. In a way, she still does, because she posthumously rises to become a national hero. Laika can be seen in one corner of the memorial plaque in Moscow for the cosmonauts who died during space flights. A monument erected solely for her shows Laika standing on a stylized rocket. Stamps with her head were printed all over the world, and chocolates and cigarettes were named after her. There is a Lajka Island in Antarctica. The Finnish surf rock band Laika & The Cosmonauts, the British alternative rock band Laika, and the German Laika publisher borrowed her name.
Poems, novels, films, and songs have been dedicated to the gentle mixed-breed dog... The most recent example is Emmy’s Irish entry for the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, which is leaves much to be desired not only for its music but also for its title, Laika Party. It is based on the idea that Laika survived in space and is celebrating there. The Spanish pop group Mecano also dedicated a song to Laika on their 1988 album “Descanso dominical”. The music video shows rare documentary footage of Laika that is truly heartbreaking, including how she was captured and trained. And then there is Australian singer Wil Wagner: in his very touching song Laika from 2013, he describes the dog’s last hours on her mission – from the animal’s perspective.
After the end of the Cold War, several employees involved in the Sputnik project expressed their regret about Laika’s tragic fate. “I asked her for forgiveness, stroked her one last time and cried,” recalled Russian biologist Adilya Kotovskaya. Oleg Gasenko, who had “trained” Laika in the centrifuge and training cage, said in 1998: “The more time passes, the more I regret it. We didn’t learn enough from the mission to justify the dog’s death.”
This text was first published on my German website and translated by me.