from Hacker News

Laika, the space dog, and her one-way trip into orbit (2018)

by cinbun8 on 11/11/22, 1:28 PM with 174 comments

  • by m000 on 11/11/22, 3:23 PM

    If you like happy endings, also check Belka and Strelka [1]. Not only did they safely travel to space and back, Strelka later gave birth to 6 pups, and one of them went on to live in the JFK White House.

    [1] https://www.amusingplanet.com/2021/12/belka-and-strelka-sovi...

  • by nimbius on 11/11/22, 2:11 PM

    Laika is memorialized in the form of a statue and plaque at Star City, the Russian Cosmonaut training facility.

    https://dynamic-media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-o/08/b...

    The Monument to the Conquerors of Space in Moscow, constructed in 1964, also includes Laika!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_Conquerors_of_...

  • by BlueBall on 11/11/22, 3:11 PM

    There's a song from Mecano. Two lines always hit me. I will try to translate it.

      And while Earth was trowing a giant party

  where happiness mixes tears in the champagne

  Laika just was looking out the window

  What could be that giant colored ball?

  And why do I keep spinning it around?

  • by boulos on 11/11/22, 4:29 PM

    This got asked deep in a comment, but NASA also used animals in space tests as briefly mentioned in the article.

    https://history.nasa.gov/animals.html is a more straightforward recounting of the various tests and animals involved, including the V-2 tests.

  • by Kaibeezy on 11/11/22, 4:44 PM

    2007 graphic novel. Lots of awards.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika_(comics)

  • by narahs on 11/11/22, 2:07 PM

    She has thousands of dogs named in her honor now - that makes me smile.

  • by JoeDaDude on 11/11/22, 6:39 PM

    Author Nick Abadzis created a graphic novel of the story of Laika [1]. While I expect it includes some fictional elements, a lot of the story in the graphic novel was true, including Laika's unfortunate demise. He got so many comments about the sad ending that he wrote several alternate endings to placate his readers. You can se them in reference [2].

    [1]. https://www.nickabadzis.com/laika-graphic-novel

    [2]. https://www.bigplanetcomics.com/category/comics/the-alternat...

  • by fnfontana on 11/11/22, 4:22 PM

    At least Laika server for a noble cause. What I think is terrible is the fact that Soviet Army tied up bombs on dogs and let the run after enemy tanks on the WWII. Humans sometimes acts disgustingly.

  • by Lapsa on 11/11/22, 1:55 PM

  • by lgessler on 11/11/22, 5:42 PM

    Zbigniew Herbert wrote an excellent poem commemorating Laika and her grim treatment: https://www.best-poems.net/poem/first-the-dog-by-zbigniew-he...

  • by markoman on 11/11/22, 3:10 PM

    Let's not forget Sharon Van Etten's tribute song to Laika, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZixNE7NEJ4

  • by tim333 on 11/11/22, 4:26 PM

    >one meal and only a seven-day oxygen supply

    It sounds rather similar to how the Russians treat their mobilised soldiers to this day.

  • by gadders on 11/11/22, 6:54 PM

    I saw the picture at the top of this article on facebook a few weeks back and for some reason it really affected me:

    https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/remember...

    Look at that good girl :-( We really don't deserve dogs.

  • by Victerius on 11/11/22, 2:13 PM

    Don't forget Félicette, the first, and so far the ONLY, cat launched into space: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9licette

    She also survived.

  • by tibbon on 11/11/22, 3:54 PM

    A character you meet early in the game Pathologic 2 is named Lika (Лиза), and wears a dog head. I thought it was just a neat name until my friend who is Russian pointed out the background and reference to Laika.

    https://pathologic.fandom.com/wiki/Lika

  • by mikeInAlaska on 11/11/22, 7:34 PM

    > They expected Laika to die from oxygen deprivation—a painless death > within 15 seconds—after seven days in space.

    So after seven days, the oxygen level would instantly drop to zero? I would think the Oxygen supply would run out, leaving the dog to slowly suffocate as the O2 supply of the capsule space was consumed.

  • by mahoro on 11/11/22, 7:13 PM

    Not completely related, but here a mockumentary movie about Russians visiting Moon in ~1910-1920s (I guess)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljKPnQNp_kA

    It is beautiful even if you choose any random moment in the middle.

  • by dang on 11/11/22, 8:11 PM

    Related:

    Remembering Laika, Space Dog and Soviet Hero - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15620340 - Nov 2017 (51 comments)

  • by friendlyHornet on 11/12/22, 7:37 AM

    Space Doggity by Jonathan Coulton

    https://youtu.be/zsV-qozMz9A

    (Same musician who wrote Still Alive and Want You Gone for Portal)

  • by psychphysic on 11/11/22, 5:04 PM

    I'm sure this is controversial but she did so much for dogkind.

  • by pipeline_peak on 11/11/22, 4:15 PM

  • by khendron on 11/11/22, 11:01 PM

    I remember reading a sci-fi story in which aliens who are covertly observing the Earth see this happening and secretly rescue Laika just before she dies.

  • by areoform on 11/11/22, 11:27 PM

    Laika's story is far more heartbreaking. Everyone involved with handling Laika hated to send her to death. From a technician who was the last person to see Laika,

    > One of the technicians preparing the capsule before final liftoff stated that "after placing Laika in the container and before closing the hatch, we kissed her nose and wished her bon voyage, knowing that she would not survive the flight."[16]

    One of the lead scientists involved expressed regrets over Laika's sacrifice,

    > Oleg Gazenko, one of the scientists responsible for sending Laika into space, expressed regret for allowing her to die:

    > "Work with animals is a source of suffering to all of us. We treat them like babies who cannot speak. The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We shouldn't have done it ... We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog."

    "We treat them like babies who cannot speak."

    The US Air Force's aeromedical research division, under the aegis of the Air Force Missile Development Center, became the first entity to send an animal (fruit flies) into space on a captured Nazi V2 rocket. They also became the first to send a mammal into space, Albert II. A rhesus monkey who suffered the ignoble fate of dying on impact after a parachute failure.

    These experiments led to the development of the first aeromedical research studies that supported the eventual development of crewed capsules. NASA has a great series on the topic, https://history.nasa.gov/afspbio/part1.htm

    You can also watch an early film made by the USAF describing their research, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSBO0haqAwc

  • by throwaway742 on 11/11/22, 5:55 PM

    RIP Comrade Laika.

  • by uwagar on 11/11/22, 3:41 PM

    this story is ridiculous when so many monkeys are / have been killed right here on earth victim of various drugs, vaccines and cosmetic tests.

    they'd squeeze anything to make russia/ussr look bad, however little.

  • by smm11 on 11/11/22, 4:17 PM

    Mousetraps, man.

  • by belval on 11/11/22, 3:56 PM

    > Soviet physicians chose Laika to die, but they were not entirely heartless.

    This tone is really harsh, animals dying to push science forward is still common today and acting like they were "heartless" for it is disingenuous.

    Laika got to be remembered, which his already much more than can be said of most test subjects.

  • by Jun8 on 11/11/22, 5:10 PM

    This is appalling but at least, as others commented, Laika got to be celebrated. For an example of real heartless exploitation of animals, see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_of_despair. This psycho is still held in high esteem. Not only that, many such experiments continue to be made for research.

  • by my_city on 11/11/22, 3:52 PM

    Anti-Soviet propaganda is reaching levels that I thought were not possible.

  • by iamapassenger on 11/11/22, 6:29 PM

    animal abuse

  • by FollowingTheDao on 11/11/22, 3:17 PM

    Scientists are some of the most sadistic people.