justice for laika

Strelka and pups

me, shoving dogs into suitcases: sign me the FUCK up

Belka and Strelka, the first of the Soviet space dogs to go into orbit and return alive. They spent a day in space on August 19, 1960 before safely returning to Earth.

First in Orbit, Laika the Dog Made History

Strelka and her puppies. Pushinka, one of Strelka’s pups, was actually gifted to John F. Kennedy by Nikita Khrushchev in 1961 and went on to have her own pups with a Kennedy dog named Charlie (resulting in the joking name ‘pupniks’)

Dezik (Дезик, "Deodorant") and Tsygan (Цыган, "Gypsy") were the first dogs to make a sub-orbital flight on 22 July 1951. Both dogs were recovered unharmed after travelling to a maximum altitude of 110 km. Dezik made another sub-orbital flight in July 29, 1951 with a dog named Lisa, although neither survived because the parachute failed to deploy. After the death of Dezik, Tsygan was adopted as a pet by Soviet physicist Anatoli Blagonravov. (x)

Laika as depicted on the Monument to the Conquerors of Space, erected in Moscow in 1964.