14 ms·
Laika, the space dog, and her one-way trip into orbit (2018)
- Lapsa 4y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vkj-t1ytzo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vkj-t1ytzo
- bjt2n3904 4y agoJonathan Coulton has a great take too. https://youtu.be/zsV-qozMz9A https://youtu.be/zsV-qozMz9A
- ubermonkey 4y agoI clicked through to this thread to ensure someone linked that.
- porkbrain 4y agoSticky Fingers have a great take too. https://youtube.com/watch?v=N3zMmc8UG2g https://youtube.com/watch?v=N3zMmc8UG2g
- marginalia_nu 4y agoMotorhomes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4vUQz-1i5o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4vUQz-1i5o
- abnry 4y agoCunk on Laika: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AScMTzoDCrk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AScMTzoDCrk
- rags2riches 4y agoMy life as a dog https://youtu.be/xsIef9QqE30?t=2m00s https://youtu.be/xsIef9QqE30?t=2m00s
- narahs 4y agoShe has thousands of dogs named in her honor now - that makes me smile.
- jmkb 4y agoAnd an excellent Finnish surf band: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika_%26_the_Cosmonauts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika_%26_the_Cosmonauts
- bitwize 4y agoAnd an animation studio: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika_(company) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika_(company)
- shautvast 4y agothe other band called Laika is one of my favourites https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfHKP2lw7vk&list=OLAK5uy_meMFtPBSx6VuUN3uEag-1tR-vfgUZpoRE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfHKP2lw7vk&list=OLAK5uy_meM...
- jojobas 4y agoIt was a generic dog name and also a breed before this Laika. It just means barker in Russian.
- nimbius 4y agoLaika 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/bf/16/55/caption.jpg?w=1200 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_Space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_Conquerors_of_...
- erwincoumans 4y agoLaikago, the quadruped robot from Unitree is also a homage to Laika: http://www.unitree.cc/e/action/ShowInfo.php?classid=6&id=1 http://www.unitree.cc/e/action/ShowInfo.php?classid=6&id=1
- Rebelgecko 4y agoAnother great place to visit honoring her is the Soviet space dog portrait gallery in the Museum of Jurassic Technology near Los Angeles
- coolspot 4y agoVery unusual museum, highly recommend to visit. They even serve tea from Samovar on the top floor.
- paganel 4y agoThere were quite a few postal stamps featuring Laika. I had these two in my stamps collection when I was a kid: [1], from Mongolia, and [2], from Romania. [1] https://c7.alamy.com/comp/D0GC31/postage-stamp-from-mongolia-depicting-laika-the-first-dog-in-space-D0GC31.jpg https://c7.alamy.com/comp/D0GC31/postage-stamp-from-mongolia... [2] https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/~KgAAOSwySVaHdDz/s-l1600.jpg https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/~KgAAOSwySVaHdDz/s-l1600.jpg
- Victerius 4y agoDon't forget Félicette, the first, and so far the ONLY, cat launched into space: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9licette https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9licette She also survived.
- smoothgrammer 4y agoKilled 2 months later to examine the brain.
- throwaway0x7E6 4y ago>Félicette was killed two months after the launch so that scientists could perform a necropsy to examine her brain.[29] it was so wholesome up until that point
- bombcar 4y agoIt's interesting the changes in tone in that article. Félicette was killed, but the other 11 cats were "euthanized".
- markoman 4y agoLet's not forget Sharon Van Etten's tribute song to Laika, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZixNE7NEJ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZixNE7NEJ4
- BlueBall 4y agoThere'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?
- mvaliente2001 4y agoThe best part is the last lines: If we pay attention to the legend then we'll have to accept that in Earth is one less dog and in heavens one more star
- Symmetry 4y agoAkino Arai also had a haunting song about the Sputnik 2 mission as a metaphor for a breakup. Translation: With enough air and water for seven days And someone's uncompromising wishes The laika dog on Sputnik Doors which will never again open now close To think that I must go on living In some distant place unfamiliar to you That we can never feel the same things
- kazinator 4y agoIn the Czech Republic, they have an oldie 50s style rock tune based on "Rock Around the Clock", with lyrics mentioning the Laika. Sovětští mužici Those Soviet chaps vypustili družici Let out a satellite Lajku do ní nacpali They stuffed Laika into it a nažrat jí nedali. Not giving her anything to eat Na kytaru trsaj rock'n'roll. Strum rock'n'roll on your guitar Lajka letí k Měsíci Lajka's flying to the Moon hlady žere družici Eating the satellite out of hunger Lajka volá SOS Lajka's calling "SOS" ať tu chcípne jinej pes! "Let another dog croak here!" Na kytaru trsaj rock'n'roll. Strum ... The Prague Spring events put a damper on this kind of thing.
- sampo 4y agoHere is "Laika Laika" (1985) from Finnish rock musician Jussi Hakulinen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpwfDTPX2Ek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpwfDTPX2Ek
- FollowingTheDao 4y agoScientists are some of the most sadistic people.
- m000 4y agoIf 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-soviet-space-dogs.html https://www.amusingplanet.com/2021/12/belka-and-strelka-sovi...
- joshjdr 4y ago[1] the article
- feintruled 4y agoOh my goodness I knew all about Laika of course but I had never heard of this! And they gave JFK one of their pups! What a wonderful story. EDIT: Nice YT vid with footage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCBWIi2vQ4k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCBWIi2vQ4k Looks like they took it in their stride!
- kazinator 4y ago
- saalweachter 4y agoTechnically, any present given "to" a US president is White House property; presumably, it became Johnson's dog after Kennedy's assassination, and, assuming the dog was still alive, later Nixon's.
- jrockway 4y agoI'm honestly taken aback at the poor taste of this comment. The dude adopted a cute puppy and cared for it. That's not a good reason to be murdered. I don't know exactly when this happened, but tensions were high after the Cuban missile crisis, and a peace offering in the form of a cuddly creature to love doesn't really seem terrible to me.
- kazinator 4y ago
- uwagar 4y agothis 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.
- bobthepanda 4y agoIt is possible for multiple things to be sad.
- wiseowise 4y ago> they'd squeeze anything to make russia/ussr look bad, however little. You don’t need to squeeze anything to make Russia/USSR look bad.
- my_city 4y agoYou do. How would you otherwise demonize a Country that reached peak industrialization in a couple decades starting from a rural, semi-feudal society? - That established the 8 hour work day in 1917, - legalized abortion in 1920, - erradicated illiteracy and achieved a literacy rate of 75% starting from 25%, - Was the first country to build satellites and men to space? - Provided a decent standard of living to all their citizens while also suffering inmense pression from the First World? You really have to grasp straws to criticize a country that made such enormous progress in such short time and that improved the lives of millions while also being attacked from left and right.
- wiseowise 4y agoMillions starved to death in collectivization, even more millions displaced from their homes and sent to gulags. Intelligentsia eradicated as a class. The biggest and potentially richest country in the world collapsed due to planned economy. And that’s just my layman knowledge typing on a phone, I’m sure many historians can decimate your comment even harder.
- ozzythecat 4y ago
- my_city 4y agoAnti-Soviet propaganda is reaching levels that I thought were not possible.
- fnordpiglet 4y agoReally? You must not have been alive during the Cold War 1 Edit: watch Red Dawn, read the article, and comment back with your comparison of treatment of Soviet Russia. In my reading of the article the only negative statement about the Soviet society was the statement that they lied about the time of death and fictionalized the science for propaganda. The rest of it reads as a humanizing story of the dog and it’s experience without a specific political agenda. I could very well have imagined any other society as the context. I feel you must be overly sensitized to have read this as anti Soviet.
- squarefoot 4y agoI also found the timing of the post a bit odd. Given the recent events I would think twice before publishing or linking to anything that could be interpreted as propaganda in either direction. I am writing this as a 100% pro-Ukraine guy.
- JKCalhoun 4y agoI definitely see your point, but hate self-censorship for "perceived reception".
- philwelch 4y agoUkraine was also part of the Soviet Union, so it doesn't really make sense to try and equivocate between the USSR and modern Russia.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- fnordpiglet 4y agoPutin != Soviet Russia != Soviet Russians != Soviet This story != anti soviet
- deleted 4y ago
- tibbon 4y agoA 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 https://pathologic.fandom.com/wiki/Lika
- shakow 4y agoThat looks like a mistranslation, Лиза translates into Lisa.
- unnouinceput 4y ago*Liza "3" like letter in Cyrillic alphabet is "z" in Latin. You can hear it when pressing the sound button in here: https://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=en&text=%D0%9B%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B0&op=translate https://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=en&text=%D0%9B%D0%B... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ze_(Cyrillic) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ze_(Cyrillic)
- shakow 4y agoI know, I speak Russian. That's why I wrote ‶translate″ and used the most common writing of the name in English, rather than ‶transliterate″.
- unnouinceput 4y agoFunny, Lisa with "s" would be "c" Latin in Russian, which begs the question if the above mentioned error in the wiki is not actually a reverse translation error - hence why they say "Lika" in it, maybe they meant to translate "Lisa" from English to Russian and was like "eh, K or C is the same".
- tibbon 4y agoThank you!
- belval 4y ago> 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.
- missedthecue 4y agoI've got to agree with you here. Every day, animals around the world are given cancer, AIDs, heart attacks, and all manner of diseases in the name of advancing science. As many as 12 million animals are dissected or vivisected in US schools alone annually. Laika was an important stepping stone towards humans in space. It's sad a dog died, but some people are a bit melodramatic.
- pipeline_peak 4y agoDid the US sacrifice any animals before they sent a human to space?
- boulos 4y agoYes, mostly mice and primates. https://history.nasa.gov/animals.html https://history.nasa.gov/animals.html is a quick summary.
- HeyImAlex 4y ago
- pipeline_peak 4y agoLaila come home https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika_Come_Home https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika_Come_Home
- smm11 4y agoMousetraps, man.
- fnfontana 4y agoAt 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.
- lordgroff 4y agoThe German death machine grinds down circa 30 million Soviet people, majority of them civilians, the hot take is being mad the red army for tank dogs. Sometimes the comments here are really special in their lack of context.
- commandlinefan 4y agoYeah, pretty sure both sides did those things to people, too...
- themitigating 4y agoSoldiers and civilians are aware of risks and have the chance to mitigate them. Animals aren't aware and can't do anything.
- vogt 4y agoOr maybe both of those things are shitty and it isn’t mutually exclusive. Sometimes the binary thinking here is really special.
- lordgroff 4y agoI'll take the 30 million dead over a relatively small number of dogs killed as the greater evil thanks.
- guntars 4y agoIt wasn't one or the other, it was both 30 million dead AND some unknown number of dogs killed that very likely didn't make a meaningful difference in the Soviet war effort. Congrats on getting down to the level of your enemy, I guess.
- tim333 4y ago>one meal and only a seven-day oxygen supply It sounds rather similar to how the Russians treat their mobilised soldiers to this day.
- boulos 4y agoThis 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 https://history.nasa.gov/animals.html is a more straightforward recounting of the various tests and animals involved, including the V-2 tests.
- misiti3780 4y agoso messed up.
- standardUser 4y agoSeems more humane than factory farming (shruggy emoji).
- thehappypm 4y agoI don’t really agree. Farming meets a basic human need. The food chain is the food chain, after all. Laika died for purely political purposes, to show how superior the Russian space program was.
- Koshkin 4y agoWhy wouldn’t one send an animal to space before sending a person for the first time? What does politics have to do with this?
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4y agoI know contrarianism hot takes are a big part of this site, but a few rebuttals to this sentiment: 1) Farming at least serves a purpose (food for humans). 2) The vast majority of people who eat meat do not support the farming and slaughter of dogs. They're tremendously emotionally intelligent, social creatures. 3) Sacrificing an animal for science may be morally justifiable if it saves human lives, but this was not one of those situations. A quote from one of the scientists assigned to Laika’s program: > “The more time passes, the more I’m sorry about it. We shouldn’t have done it. We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog.”
- Kaibeezy 4y ago2007 graphic novel. Lots of awards. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika_(comics) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika_(comics)
- JKCalhoun 4y agoI was hoping someone would mention. Here is another link: https://www.nickabadzis.com/laika-graphic-novel https://www.nickabadzis.com/laika-graphic-novel
- mikehodgson 4y agoThere is also this one written by Jeff Lemire, though it is obviously a work of fiction. It also features the American monkeys Able and Baker: https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/primordial https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/primordial
- JKCalhoun 4y agoAble and Baker newsreel: https://ia902803.us.archive.org/28/items/Jeff_Quitney_me/20120105-Able%20and%20Baker%20Jupiter%20Missile%20Flight%20-%20%27Space%20Monkeys%20Meet%20Press...%27%201959-06-01%20Universal%20Newsreel.mp4 https://ia902803.us.archive.org/28/items/Jeff_Quitney_me/201...
- JoeDaDude 4y agoAuthor Nick Abadzis got a lot of responses about the factual, sad fate of Laika in his graphic novel. So much that he wrote several alternate (entirely fictional) endings to the story to make readers feel better. https://www.bigplanetcomics.com/category/comics/the-alternative-endings-to-laika-show https://www.bigplanetcomics.com/category/comics/the-alternat...
- dclowd9901 4y agoAlso in the category of fictional references to Laika, a wonderful episode of Space Dandy (“The Lonely Pooch Planet, Baby”)
- psychphysic 4y agoI'm sure this is controversial but she did so much for dogkind.
- Jun8 4y agoThis 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 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.
- cenal 4y agoI always hate to say we need regulation around something but then someone evil does something evil and the need for regulation emerges again...
- kibwen 4y agoEthics review boards these days understand that potential outcry is proportional to the amount of empathy the public has for a specific type of animal. Even beyond the "potential outcry" angle, universities understand that such experiments threaten to reduce the public's ability to trust in the scientific process itself, which they rightfully recognize as an existential threat. I've taken the mandatory animal ethics course as a result of doing consulting work at a large research university, and it's clear that getting approval for an experiment involving any kind of primate is essentially impossible. Dogs and cats would be extremely difficult, random mammals like pigs and rabbits would be quite difficult, even arbitrary rodents would be non-trivial. As a result of seeking the path of least resistance, most experiments took place on flies, bees, worms, spiders, fish, mice, and the one specific breed of rat that is more-or-less automatically approved for all experiments (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laboratory_rat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laboratory_rat).
- doorman2 4y agoWhat was it about the 20th century that produced such heartless people? Lead exposure? I understand that the 20th century is far from an aberration in terms of human cruelty, but there is an element of sadism that feels different than other centuries. For instance, read the first sentence from Harlow's Wikipedia page: > Harry Frederick Harlow (October 31, 1905 – December 6, 1981) was an American psychologist best known for his maternal-separation, dependency needs, and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys, which manifested the importance of caregiving and companionship to social and cognitive development. Did we really need to torture these creatures for decades to understand the importance of care giving? The experiments seem like a flimsy pretext for torture.
- lgessler 4y agoZbigniew Herbert wrote an excellent poem commemorating Laika and her grim treatment: https://www.best-poems.net/poem/first-the-dog-by-zbigniew-herbert.html https://www.best-poems.net/poem/first-the-dog-by-zbigniew-he...
- throwaway742 4y agoRIP Comrade Laika.
- iamapassenger 4y agoanimal abuse
- JoeDaDude 4y agoAuthor 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 https://www.nickabadzis.com/laika-graphic-novel [2]. https://www.bigplanetcomics.com/category/comics/the-alternative-endings-to-laika-show https://www.bigplanetcomics.com/category/comics/the-alternat...
- gadders 4y agoI 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/remembering-laika-space-dog-and-soviet-hero https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/remember... Look at that good girl :-( We really don't deserve dogs.
- mahoro 4y agoNot completely related, but here a mockumentary movie about Russians visiting Moon in ~1910-1920s (I guess) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljKPnQNp_kA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljKPnQNp_kA It is beautiful even if you choose any random moment in the middle.
- lgats 4y agoFurther topic tangent, if you're into Sci-Fi shorts, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8ePy1a4Uxo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8ePy1a4Uxo
- mikeInAlaska 4y ago> 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.
- Pigalowda 4y agoI would think the CO2 gets too high before oxygen runs out too, but maybe they had CO2 scrubbers? If not, I think the pCO2 would go beyond 40 mmHg and the dog would die of metabolic acidosis instead of hypoxia/anoxia.
- thehappypm 4y agoPerhaps, but if you had CO2 scrubbers you could easily set it up to last a less excruciating 1 day instead of 7 days of starvation..
- dang 4y agoRelated: Remembering Laika, Space Dog and Soviet Hero - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15620340 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15620340 - Nov 2017 (51 comments)
- khendron 4y agoI 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.
- areoform 4y agoLaika'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 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSBO0haqAwc
- thehappypm 4y agoIt’s so sad because they basically had to send a really friendly, docile dog, because a meanie wouldn’t be suitable. Weirdly I see this as one of science’s great failures. Hard to pin down why especially when the average pig is treated far worse.
- jojobas 4y agoIt was a feral/stray dog they got from pest control.
- friendlyHornet 4y agoSpace Doggity by Jonathan Coulton https://youtu.be/zsV-qozMz9A https://youtu.be/zsV-qozMz9A (Same musician who wrote Still Alive and Want You Gone for Portal)