A 1959 cigarette company trading card featuring Laika, the Sputnik dog.

Within a month of the launch of Sputnik, the first satellite, Soviets launched a second satellite, Sputnik 2. This satellite had a dog named Laika onboard to test the effects of space on a living organism. At the time, Soviets reported that they euthanized Laika after days in orbit before she ran out of oxygen. However, more recent reports revealed that the dog died within a few hours of the launch from overheating.

Citation Information
“Laika, the Sputnik dog,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/b27700816694c62a099050865d56222e.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of The New York Public Library.

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