2003 Acrylic 18" x 36"
Laika the Space Dog was the first living creature to orbit the Earth.
She was found as a stray on the streets of Moscow. Her training included being held in progressively smaller cages for up to twenty days at a time, and being fed food that had been jellified.
She was launched on a one-way trip into orbit in Sputnik 2 in November 1957.
She was chained in the cabin to prevent her from turning around.
Upon launch, her pulse rate went up by a factor of three. The heat and humidity in the cabin increased because the Russians stupidly thought a fan would be enough to cool the cabin.
She died four hours after launch due to overheating and stress.
Her coffin circled the Earth 2,570 times, and burned up int the Earth's atmosphere on April 4, 1958.
