SOVIET SPACE DOGS PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Olesya Turkina,Damon Murray,Inna Cannon | 240 pages | 30 Sep 2014 | Fuel Publishing | 9780956896285 | English | London, United Kingdom Laika - Wikipedia The true cause and time of her death were not made public until ; instead, it was widely reported that she died when her oxygen ran out on day six or, as the Soviet government initially claimed, she was euthanised prior to oxygen depletion. On 11 April , Russian officials unveiled a monument to Laika. A small monument in her honour was built near the military research facility in Moscow that prepared Laika's flight to space. It portrayed a dog standing on top of a rocket. She also appears on the Monument to the Conquerors of Space in Moscow. After the success of Sputnik 1 in October , Nikita Khrushchev , the Soviet leader , wanted a spacecraft launched on 7 November , the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution. Construction had already started on a more sophisticated satellite, but it would not be ready until December; this satellite would later become Sputnik 3. Meeting the November deadline meant building a new craft. Planners settled on an orbital flight with a dog. Soviet rocket engineers had long intended a canine orbit before attempting human spaceflight; since , they had lofted twelve dogs into sub-orbital space on ballistic flights, working gradually toward an orbital mission set for some time in To satisfy Khrushchev's demands, they expedited the orbital canine flight for the November launch. The craft was equipped with a life-support system consisting of an oxygen generator and devices to avoid oxygen poisoning and to absorb carbon dioxide. Enough food in a gelatinous form was provided for a seven-day flight, and the dog was fitted with a bag to collect waste. A harness was designed to be fitted to the dog, and there were chains to restrict her movements to standing, sitting, or lying down; there was no room to turn around in the cabin. An electrocardiogram monitored heart rate and further instrumentation tracked respiration rate, maximum arterial pressure, and the dog's movements. 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. Laika, the Russian name for several breeds of dogs similar to the husky , was the name popularised around the world. According to some accounts, the technicians actually renamed her from Kudryavka to Laika due to her loud barking. The Soviet Union and United States had previously sent animals only on sub-orbital flights. To adapt the dogs to the confines of the tiny cabin of Sputnik 2, they were kept in progressively smaller cages for periods of up to 20 days. The extensive close confinement caused them to stop urinating or defecating, made them restless, and caused their general condition to deteriorate. Laxatives did not improve their condition, and the researchers found that only long periods of training proved effective. The dogs were placed in centrifuges that simulated the acceleration of a rocket launch and were placed in machines that simulated the noises of the spacecraft. This caused their pulses to double and their blood pressure to increase by 30—65 torr. The dogs were trained to eat a special high-nutrition gel that would be their food in space. Before the launch, one of the mission scientists took Laika home to play with his children. In a book chronicling the story of Soviet space medicine, Dr. Vladimir Yazdovsky wrote, "Laika was quiet and charming I wanted to do something nice for her: She had so little time left to live. Vladimir 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. The third dog, Mushka, was a " control dog "—she was to stay on the ground and be used to test instrumentation and life support. Before leaving for the Baikonur Cosmodrome , Yazdovsky and Gazenko conducted surgery on the dogs, routing the cables from the transmitters to the sensors that would measure breathing, pulse, and blood pressure. Because the existing airstrip at Turatam near the cosmodrome was small, the dogs and crew had to be first flown aboard a Tu plane to Tashkent. From there, a smaller and lighter Il plane took them to Turatam. Training of dogs continued upon arrival; one after another they were placed in the capsules to get familiar with the feeding system. According to a NASA document, Laika was placed in the capsule of the satellite on 31 October —three days before the start of the mission. Murray: Laika was chosen because during pre-flight training, she had demonstrated an exceptional capacity for endurance and tolerance. These were the admirable characteristics that would condemn her to a martyr-like death for the benefit of the human race. In addition, she was a striking dog, light in color but with dark brown spots on her face, which possessed a surprised expression. Crucially, her image reproduced well in black-and-white photographs and film footage. This was an important factor, as it was recognized that the launch would be historically significant and, therefore, would be meticulously recorded. Murray: The ideology of the Space Race meant that there was no time to develop a recovery system before sending Laika into space. Following the sensational launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, , Khrushchev had told the scientists that another space satellite needed to be launched in honor of the rapidly approaching 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution on November 7, This meant that Sputnik 2 had been prepared in a frantic rush. Made by S. Toys, this spinning top depicts Laika standing on a version of Sputnik 2 surrounded by a space-themed frieze. Initially, the lack of images released by the Soviet space program meant it was assumed that Sputnik 2 had the same design as Sputnik 1. The West felt genuine compassion for Laika. She was perceived as an innocent victim, caught up in the brutal Cold War drive to be first at any cost. To Soviet children, the story of Laika was a heroic fairy tale about a kind and intelligent dog that had flown away into space. To adults, her fate ostensibly resembled their own. This foot silver obelisk in the shape of an exhaust plume is crowned by a rocket ascending into the sky. It came to symbolize the hopes and dreams of an entire generation of Soviet people. A Chinese matchbox label depicts Laika in a Sputnik-style spacecraft. Murray: After the initial excitement that followed the launch of Sputnik 2, they now had to explain to the rest of the world why Laika would never return. After this period, an announcement was made that stated she had lived in orbit for a week, during which time she had served as a source of priceless data on the plausibility of life in space; then, she had been painlessly euthanized. There were several accounts of how she had died. First, a euthanasia drug was remotely injected. Second, a euthanasia drug was administered with food. Third, by the eighth day, she ran out of oxygen. In reality, due to a thermal conductivity miscalculation, Laika had suffocated just a few hours after the launch; this fact was only revealed in In the s, the international press accused the Soviet totalitarian regime of inhumanity and suggested that General Secretary Khrushchev should have been sent into orbit instead. In response, the Soviet press wrote about the hypocrisy of capitalist morality, the exploitation of entire nations in the colonies, and racism. Regardless of these arguments, Soviet ideology was faced with a serious dilemma. Murray: Their capsule had been fitted with a camera that transmitted live images from space to Earth in real time. The whole nation watched Strelka merrily spinning in zero-gravity, while Belka, on the contrary, remained reserved and watchful. They courageously endure cold and heat in the training capsule, and are confined for several days at a time in a cramped re-entry module, where they are unable to walk, only sit or lie down. Inside, they learn how to eat gelatinous food delivered by an automatic dispenser. They are spun on a merry-go-round and trained to tolerate rocket noise by listening to recordings. They are tested on a vibrating table and have to sleep in a brightly lit kennel. They are even flown in an airplane. But the most severe trial for the dogs is the ejector seat, in which they are suddenly shot up into the air, descending slowly down by means of a parachute. Originally, the team of Chaika and Lisichka were intended to make this mission. However, they died tragically on July 28, , when their rocket exploded on the launch pad. They had been the favorite dogs at the institute. It was later suggested that sending a red-haired dog into space was a bad omen. Murray: The launch of the rocket containing Belka and Strelka took place on August 19, , at Alongside Belka and Strelka, the space mission included an ejecting container with twelve mice, insects, plants, fungi cultures, various germs, sprouts of wheat, peas, onions, and kernels of corn. In addition, the cabin contained twenty-eight lab mice and two white rats. Only after the first orbit did the dogs begin to bark. Vladimir Yazdovsky, the lead scientist of biological research in the upper layers of the atmosphere and outer space, declared that as long as the dogs were barking, and not howling, they were sure to return to Earth.