Space Odyssey or a Regret?
The great canine cosmonaut, Laika was launched for the space mission in the Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957. The world had already witnessed the launch of world's first satellite, Sputnik 1 in October 1957. These series of events soon gained worldwide popularity as they were significant steps towards human space missions. Laika, called as Kudryavka in Russian, meaning Little Curly-Haired One was the first dog in space. In fact, if we exclude microorganisms, Laika was the first living creature to be sent into orbit. Besides Laika, two other dogs also underwent training for surviving in the tough conditions of a space shuttle, however, finally Laika was selected for the mission. The reason behind choosing dogs was that, scientists believed, dogs could endure inactivity better than other animals. Instead of a male, the female species of dogs were chosen because the female dogs did not have to lift their legs to urinate and so it was in some way suited for the space missions!! Laika first interacted with the world community by barking out a 'hello' into the microphone, just a week before her flight. During the first few days of the space mission, scientists received continuous 'beep beep' signals that assured the tracking of the spacecraft.
Animal lovers were not very positive about the safety of the animals, since the inception of the idea of sending animals into space and so they were always against it. However, few days after the launch of Sputnik 2, when it was announced that Laika has only 10 days of food and oxygen to survive, there was public outrage and the Russian space agency was criticized for being inhumane. Unfortunately, Russian authorities declared the death of Laika, the first dog in space, on the fourth day of the mission. Since then there have been debates about animal testing methods and their efficacy. Another controversy regarding the death of Laika came into the limelight, in 2002, when Dimitri Malashenkov of the...