Laika's Window - The Legacy of a Soviet Space Dog

Laika began her life as a stray dog on the streets of Moscow and died in 1957 aboard the Soviet satellite Sputnik II. Initially the USSR reported that Laika, the first animal to orbit the earth, had survived in space for seven days, providing valuable data that would make future manned space flight possible. People believed that Laika died a painless death as her oxygen ran out. Only in recent decades has the real story become public: Laika died after only a few hours in orbit when her capsule overheated. Laika-s Window positions Laika as a long overdue hero for leading the way to human space exploration.

Kurt Caswell examines Laika-s life and death and the speculation surrounding both. Profiling the scientists behind Sputnik II, he studies the political climate driven by the Cold War and the Space Race that expedited the satellite-s development. Through this intimate portrait of Laika, we begin to understand what the dog experienced in the days and hours before th