64 years ago, November 3, 1957, the second artificial satellite of the Earth was launched. On his board was a dog husky, which became the first living creature derived from the near-earth orbit.
“Candidate of astronauts” was found literally twelve days before launching rocket. At the last moment, the choice of scientists fell on the dog, and not on other mammals, and the dog took from the domestic shelter. The purebred pieces decided not to take, as they are less adapted to complex conditions.
In addition to the husky, Albina claimed the title of the first dog-astronaut, already twice flying on rockets, and a fly – a novice, like a husky. Albina, served by science, researchers regretted, and fly because of a small curvature of a paw, which would be badly looked at the photos, used as a “technological dog” – they checked the equipment on it before the start.
Preparation began almost immediately after the start of the cosmic era – the launch of the first artificial satellite of the Earth. The appearance of an animal in a special spacecraft has become the consolidation of the Soviet Union’s success in general and in the space industry in particular.
Designed the device literally “on the go,” immediately embodying the idea of life. Lyaki also took special training. Unfortunately, everyone understood: it will fly one way. In the satellite cabin there was a feeding device and a device for regenerating air, calculated for seven days. The return of the husky on the ground design was not provided.
During the take-off, colossal overload struck. She crushed inside the container, but she was able to move the load. The husky died from overheating after four turns around the Earth, but her flight proved that a living being can survive the launch into orbit and the state of weightlessness. This allowed scientists and designers to proceed to the preparation of the space flight of the ship with a man on board.
Lyka became the hero who died in the name of science. The photos of the heroic animal today there are in every museum of cosmonautics and in a huge number of books about space, her name was called various products of everyday use, postcards and brands were also released in her honor. On April 11, 2008 in Moscow at the Petrovsko-Razumovskaya Alley on the territory of the Institute of Military Medicine, where a space experiment was preparing, a monument to Like was installed.
Like forever remained in the history of the study of outer space.