Finally, on November 3, 1957, Laika took off.Īs the spacecraft blasted off of the Earth and into space, Laika panicked.
Yazdovsky had his men keep a constant eye on her. A hose from an air conditioner was set up to keep her warm, and Dr. The scientists did their best to take care of her. There had been a malfunction that had to be repaired, and so Laika was kept in freezing cold temperatures, unable to move. For the next three days, she was grounded inside the spacecraft, waiting on Earth. “The second satellite was created without preliminary design, or any kind of design.” 7The Dogs Spent Weeks In Increasingly Smaller Cages “All traditions developed in rocket technology were thrown out,” one of the scientists, Boris Chertok, said. It was enough time to do it, but not enough to make one that could come back. The scientists now had four weeks to make the first spacecraft capable of sending a living thing into orbit. The original plans for a return mission had to be scrapped. He wanted Sputnik 2 to blast off on the 40th Anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, and he ordered the scientists to rush the job so he could get the date right. Khrushchev viewed Laika’s journey as a piece of propaganda, and he wanted it timed to perfection. The Soviets had boasted that she would have all the comforts she needed to survive and return home safely.Īll that changed, though, because of Khrushchev. In the original plan, Laika was to come home. Laika went into space so that Albina could live.Ĩ . . . Because They Rushed The Spacecraft According to some, Albina was the first choice, but she was kept on the ground out of respect. Laika, however, may have been chosen because of the cruelty of the mission. “This has been done not for the sake of cruelty but for the benefit of humanity.” “The Russians love dogs,” they responded in a statement. The Soviets didn’t understand why they were so upset. Others held a moment of silence each day at 11:00 AM in quiet protest. The Daily Mirror ran an article with the headline, “ The Dog Will Die, We Can’t Save It.” The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals urged people to call the Soviet embassy and complain. The British, in particular, campaigned to stop the mission. Outside of the Soviet Union, Laika’s doomed mission was an outrage. Then, she would be euthanized with poison in her dog food. Laika would spend a few days in orbit above the Earth. They knew that she would not survive the trip home. The satellite they’d built wasn’t equipped for a safe reentry.
Unlike Albina, Laika wasn’t going to come back.
0 kommentar(er)
