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Russians Reveal Early Death of Laika

Posted by michael on from the where-no-dog-had-gone-before dept.

jonerik writes "Contrary to long-believed Soviet reports that Laika the space dog - the first living animal to be launched into orbit from Earth - lived for a week or so after she was launched into orbit aboard Sputnik 2 in November 1957, CNN is now reporting that Dimitri Malashenkov of the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow has presented a scientific paper at the World Space Congress in Houston, Texas in which he revealed that Laika actually died a few hours after launch due to thermal insulation problems overheating the cabin interior. Sputnik 2 remained in orbit a total of 162 days, before burning up in the atmosphere on April 14, 1958."

4 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. That explains why China is working on a space prog by Ashran · · Score: 4, Funny

    > died a few hours after launch due to thermal insulation problems overheating the cabin interior
    China is just looking for new ways to cook dogs alive without animal rights organisations close by :)

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  2. Damn I hungry... by xagon7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hot-dogs anyone?

    I couldnt resist...

    1. Re:Damn I hungry... by falzer · · Score: 4, Funny

      Uh... hm. What part of the dog did you get in your hot-dog?

  3. Hee hee... by C0LDFusion · · Score: 3, Funny

    I never met a Space Dog I didn't Laika!

    Oh, well...

    Anyway, I think its interesting to remember that Dogs made it into space before humans.



    ...that is unless you belong to a UFO cult like the Raelians and think we're originally from outer space.

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