
Soviet Space Dogs - RomanPushkin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_dogs
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Yhippa
This article always makes me sad. These dogs have an affinity for and trust
their humans only to be sent off and get exploded, crashed onto the surface of
the Earth, or starved of oxygen. I can't imagine what's going through their
minds when they head out.

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ProAm
Wait until you read about what the military and CIA did to humans without
their consent.

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fredgrott
hmm you mean LSD?

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duud
Worse.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_syphilis_experiment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_syphilis_experiment)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala_syphilis_experiments](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala_syphilis_experiments)

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MouseDroid
This Chemical Brothers video parallels some of Laika's story:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRfSM-
lv55I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRfSM-lv55I)

There's also an excellent comic about Laika: [https://www.amazon.com/Laika-
Nick-Abadzis/dp/1596431016](https://www.amazon.com/Laika-Nick-
Abadzis/dp/1596431016)

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hmahncke
There is a great exhibit of portraits of these dogs at the Museum of Jurassic
Technology in Los Angeles ("The Lives of Perfect Creatures"):

[http://mjt.org/recentaddtions/creatures.html](http://mjt.org/recentaddtions/creatures.html)

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Rebelgecko
When I went there was a dog lying on the floor which I assumed was stuffed.
While I was looking at the exhibit it got up and started walking around which
scared the shit out of me.

The MJT is a bizarre place but 100% worth visiting.

"All the Universe is full of the life of perfect creatures"

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devindotcom
If you're interested in this, there's a really amazing book with this same
title that has tons of info and a huge amount of great imagery as well.

[http://fuel-design.com/publishing/soviet-space-dogs/](http://fuel-
design.com/publishing/soviet-space-dogs/)

Highly recommended, though also as others have pointed out quite sad.

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gumby
Those two pictures of Belka and Strelka are really of those two dogs,
taxidermied and placed in the space museum in Moscow with their capsule
between them. The crate or living quarters they rode in is also in the museum,
in a different room.

Amazing museum by the way, housed in the base of a sculpture of a soaring
rocket!

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watersb
I named my dog 'Laika'.

Just last week, I was looking for Belka and Strelka t-shirts.

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xattt
Will this be a primary source for hipster dog names in the next few years?

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psalminen
One of my astrophysics professor's named her dog Laika, so it's already begun.

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gumby
My ex (German) had a dog named Laika when she was small and I knew a couple of
Laikas in India as a kid -- presumably they were born around the time of
Sputnik 2 (I was born after humans had already made the trip so these dogs
were my elders).

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riffraff
Great name for a band!

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webwielder2
>Dogs were the preferred animal for the experiments because scientists felt
dogs were well suited to endure long periods of inactivity.

Wow, 2 plus 2 really did equal 5 for Soviet apparatchiks!

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ReptileMan
Well an English bulldog I know thinks that 20 meters are exhausting and
fulfilling walk. Good enough for a whole day. The only time that dog spends
some energy is when he has to chew some expensive item into kindling.

