With a pounding heart and rapid breathing, she took a rocket into Earth orbit, 2,000 miles above the streets of Moscow she knew.
Overheated, crowded, frightened, and possibly hungry, she eventually gave up her life and involuntarily completed the canine suicide mission.
The story sounds tragic, but this stray dog, as the first creature to orbit the earth, is bound to be part of human aerospace history.
Today, we will talk about the story of the puppy Lycra.
At the request of Nikita-Khrushchev, Soviet engineers hastily designed and built sputnik 2 and planned to launch it on November 7, 1957, the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.
On top of the Sputnik 1 satellite, engineers added a cabin to carry an experimental puppy.
Soviet dog recruiters targeted a group of female stray dogs because female dogs were smaller and more docile.
After a series of seemingly rigorous tests, the team ultimately chose The Peaceful Little Curly Hair as the astronaut of Sputnik 2 and Albina as the backup.
Curly hairs were later called laika, which means "barker" in Russian.
Rumor has it that Albina outperformed Laika, but avoided the fatal flight because she became a mom and apparently won the affection of her keepers.
Doctors operated on the two dogs, embedding medical devices inside them to monitor heartbeat, respiratory rate, blood pressure and physical condition.
Three days before the scheduled liftoff, Laika entered her cramped travel space, with an extremely limited range of activities.
After thorough cleaning, equipped with sensors, and equipped with sanitary equipment, Lycra put on a spacesuit with built-in metal restraints.
Due to the limited space technology at that time and the lack of spacecraft recycling technology, Laika was destined to embark on a journey with no return.
At 5:30 a.m. on November 3, 1957, Sputnik 2 was launched with a gravity value five times the normal gravity level.
The noise and pressure of flying frightened Laika, and her heartbeat rose sharply to three times her normal speed and her breathing rate increased fourfold.
When the satellite orbited to the 9th circle, 5 hours after entering the orbit, the oxygen equipment in the cabin suddenly stopped functioning.
The oxygen content in the capsule became lower and lower, and the temperature became higher and higher, and eventually the puppy Lycra closed his eyes forever in the heat and high pressure.
Without passengers, Sputnik 2 continued to orbit for five months.
On April 14, 1958, it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere after 162 days in orbit and burned down.
Although Lycra survived only a few hours in space, its short journey in space proved that mammals could withstand the harsh environment of rocket launches, paving the way for a future manned spaceflight career.
While concerns about animal rights at the time had not yet reached the level of the 21st century, some protested the decision to deliberately let Laika die because the Soviets lacked the technology to safely return her to Earth.
In 2015, Russia erected a new memorial statue for Laika at a military research base in Moscow.
In March 2005, during the Mars rover Opportunity mission, NASA informally named a site inside a Martian crater "Lycra."
Laika's story is now widely circulated, and her cultural influence will continue to spread.