The First Soviet Cosmonaut Dog Died in Space in Agony

Alone and scared, Laika went down in history

Laika, dog launched into space on a stamp from Rumania Posta Romania, 1957, 1,20 Lei Michel stamp catalog (East-Europe part 4) number: 1685 On Wikimedia Commons | Image altered by the author

In 1957 a stray dog from the streets of Moscow went on a space mission. After death, she was awarded the greatest medals for courage — the same ones Yuri Gagarin received as the first man in space (1961). Her monument still stands in the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics at the heart of the Russian…