The first dog in space

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Laika the Russian stray was the first dog to orbit the Earth. She was sent into space on a flight in 1957 which had been timed to mark the anniversary of the Russian Revolution. She died after orbiting Earth four times. Professor Victor Yazdovsky's father was in charge of the dogs in the Russian space programme. In 2017, Professor Yazdovsky spoke to Olga Smirnova about playing with Laika, before her flight, when he was just nine-years-old. (Photo: Laika. Credit: Getty Images.)

Transcript

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0:00.0	From global current affairs to art, science, and culture,
0:05.0	the documentary from the BBC World Service tells the world's stories,
0:10.5	search for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
0:23.0	Welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:27.0	Today, we're taking you back to November 1957,
0:31.0	when the first living creature was sent into orbit around the earth.
0:35.0	That space pioneer was a Russian stray dog called Liker.
0:39.0	In 2017, Olga Sminova spoke to someone who knew the space dog well.
0:48.0	She was a very patient dog, very affectionate.
0:52.0	She was easy to train.
0:54.0	She was considered very clever.
0:56.0	She had very expressive, dark eyes.
1:14.0	Everybody was very worried for her.
1:16.0	There were no systems at the time capable of returning living creatures from the earth orbit.
1:22.0	Everyone treated her as a hero.
1:36.0	My father brought her to my granny's house, not far from Moscow,
1:41.0	and my sister and I played with her.
1:44.0	Dad thought that she needed this experience of being at home before the flight.
1:50.0	Soviet scientists had started thinking about sending dogs into space in 1948,
1:56.0	and the Yazdovsky children often played with experimental animals.
2:04.0	I remember that very often a car would arrive from my father's lap.
2:08.0	It would signal, beep, beep, the door would open,
	...

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