Anniversary: Soviet mutt was first earthling in space
SOURCE: AFP (10-29-07)
Fifty years ago Saturday, a perky-eared mutt named Laika, scooped up from the streets of Moscow, became the first earthling to breach our planet's atmosphere and enter space.
It was a short and painful voyage for the docile little stray, which died within hours after launch, but a crowning coup for the Soviet Union.
Only a month earlier, Moscow had humiliated the United States by lobbing Sputnik, the world's first satellite, into orbit.
Sputnik 2 added another thick layer of insult, expanding Moscow's lead in the emerging space race just as the USSR was celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution.
It was a short and painful voyage for the docile little stray, which died within hours after launch, but a crowning coup for the Soviet Union.
Only a month earlier, Moscow had humiliated the United States by lobbing Sputnik, the world's first satellite, into orbit.
Sputnik 2 added another thick layer of insult, expanding Moscow's lead in the emerging space race just as the USSR was celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution.
Source:
AFP
Source URL:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071030/ts_afp/sciencespacehistoryrussia
Date:
10-29-07
