If you are in the LA area the Museum of Jurassic Technology is worth visiting for, among other reasons, the room dedicated to the dogs of the Soviet space program. It features paintings and bios of 5 dogs who were involved in the space program.<p><a href="http://www.mjt.org/recentaddtions/creatures.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.mjt.org/recentaddtions/creatures.html</a><p>Edit: Some info about and images of the paintings here:<p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/miranda/la-et-cam-painter-ma-peers-soviet-space-dogs-20151223-column.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/miranda/la-et-cam-...</a>
I remember reading about Laika as a kid and how they sent up the dog in space and just let it die up there. It made me feel so bad and still does today. :(
The author of this piece, Alex Wellerstein, is absolutely fantastic on the history of the Nuclear bomb, and I cannot recommend his blog enough: <a href="http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com" rel="nofollow">http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com</a><p>His twitter is also worth a follow: <a href="http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com" rel="nofollow">http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com</a>
Random, but she's also the central character in Trentemøller's video for Moan:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZPxvO1ftY" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZPxvO1ftY</a>
I remember reading about Laika when I was a child. Growing up when the space race was really big I remember both countries us and the Russians sending up animals to test how they would react in space before sending up a human.
A great achievement. I remember reading about Laika when I was a child. I was into astronauts (or cosmonauts) a lot when I was a child, I dreamed of becoming an astronaut for NASA. I read all books related to space travel and astronautics at the time.
Laika is a character in The Manhattan Projects, a great comic from Image. It's written by Robert Kirkman, a co-creator of The Walking Dead.<p><a href="https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/the-manhattan-projects" rel="nofollow">https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/the-manhattan-projects</a>
Stalin had a saying, I paraphrase:<p>One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.<p>I think the reaction to Laika's demise illustrated this.<p>The exact quantity of dogs 'put to sleep' in 1964 in the USA is not known. However, I am sure that many thousands were 'put to sleep' every single day, with more than a million dogs euthanised in the USA over the year because that is what happens.<p>Incidentally, the last shuttle disaster (Challenger, 2003) was bad news for 13 rats, eight garden orb weaver spiders, five silkworms and three cocoons, four Medaka fish eggs, three carpenter bees, 15 harvester ants and an assortment of fish. Plus the human crew.<p>I am sure all of the animals all had names. There was no mass outpouring of emotion though or letters to the New York Times saying how cruel it was to put them on the Space Shuttle given the likeliness of it going badly wrong.
For those in the SF Bay area, the Chabot space center has a lot of old Soviet space hardware -- including a training capsule like the one in the picture at the top of the article.
Just read the wiki page for Korolev and damn.. that man's life was a tragedy.<p>Somehow he managed to put everything behind him and literally kick-start the space race and achieve all the Soviet first's in space.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Korolev" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Korolev</a>
You can see taxidermied Belka and Strelka at the Moscow space museum. A bit morbid, but they are front and center as parts of the soviet space program.
Here's some more in detail about Laika:<p><a href="https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/laika-declassified-180967077/" rel="nofollow">https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/laika-declassified-...</a>
Adding to the cultural references... Jonathan Coulton wrote a superb song about Laika called "Space Doggity".<p>The cage is very small, a tiny silver ball
that makes you a hero the moment you step inside.
The world is watching you, what you're about to do
will live on forever, even though you'll be dead
and gone, buckle up we're about to turn the engines on.<p>Hello from Sputnik 2, I am receiving you.
Thanks for the the dog food, I'm somewhere above you now.
Guess what, Maloshenkov? I took my collar off
I'm holding my own leash, walking myself outside this door.
I don't think I want to be a good dog anymore.<p>Now I'm floating free, and the moon's with me
and it's bright enough to light the dark.
And it's so high up here, and the stars so clear,
Are they close enough? Will they hear me bark from here?<p>Hello to Sputnik 2, I think we're losing you,
Your lifesigns are fading, I can't really say that we're surprised.
It's a shame, there's always something that gets compromised<p>Now I'm floating free, and the moon's with me
and it's bright enough to light the dark.
And it's so high up here, and the stars so clear
Are they close enough? Will they hear me bark from here?