Laika

On November 3rd, 1957, one month after Sputnik launched, the space race went into hyperdrive when the Soviet Union sent a second satellite into orbit, this one carrying a dog named Laika. Six times heavier than the original that went up October 4th, the new satellite circled the Earth about once every 100 minutes at a height of 560 miles, traveling nearly 18,000 miles an hour. Despite initial claims that Laika would safely return to earth, her fate was sealed. Soviet officials eventually claimed this was done not for the sake of cruelty but the benefit of humanity – yet it is not the fate of the dog, but that of the human, that worries us.