Laika poses in a training capsule.
A month after Sputnik went up in 1957, the Soviets launched a another satellite, Sputnik 2, with a very famous passenger: Laika, a mutt from the streets of Moscow.
She never made it home.
The writer John Haskell has this tribute, part fact and part fiction, to the canine cosmonaut. A version of this story appears in his book, “I Am Not Jackson Pollock.”
(Originally aired October 5, 2007)
The story you just read is not locked behind a paywall because listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Now more than ever, we need your help to support our global reporting work and power the future of The World. Can we count on you?