The first living being into space was a dog
It’s the 51st anniversary of the Sputnik I launch, setting off the space race, and America’s eventual walk on the moon, certainly one of the greatest achievements of humankind. These days America focuses on it’s sickly economy and “fighting terror”, leaving the space race to other nations.
Although it didn’t happen on that first flight, I also want to take a moment for Laika, who was the first terran being into space. I am a dog lover and she was a good looking dog, it makes me sick to imagine how stressful her final hours must have been. What I don’t get, even if you suspend all ethics, is why you would send a dog into space in such a way that you had no hope of studying the effects of the voyage upon it? Why include any organism, destined only to burn up?
The USA, USSR, France and Argentina also tortured several kinds of monkeys over the years in the name of their space programs. It seems doubly insulting now that the focus has been greatly reduced on these sorts of projects, expensive though they may be.
I know you’re a Murakami fan, have you ever read his “Sputnik Sweetheart”? There are a few passages where Laika’s lonely view from space are woven into the plot. Good stuff.
I did read that one, but unfortunately during a period of “Murakami mania” I intentionally had to cool, as that tidbit didn’t make it into long term memory, among other bits that didn’t make it.
It’s still strikes me as cruel, despite being sort of a romantic image. Dogs can get into the “cat game” of staring out windows, but generally don’t react to their own reflections. Laika surely knew she was very much alone, everything smelled funny, if at all, and probably died still wanting to please her human “friends” with obedience to some objective she couldn’t begin to understand. I’m not like Mr. PETA or anything, but the image has been bumming me out all day, strikes me as especially fucked. What was the purpose of putting a dog on the craft? I picture her trainers sadly vodka-toasting pictures of her years later, telling themselves she was a “hero”, but it’s all such bullshit!
Do you remember that 80s movie with Matthew Broderick and Helen Hunt- the one where they break into a space lab and steal all the monkeys being tortured there? It’s a real thriller. I saw it when I was a kid and used to cry for the poor little monkeys. As far as Laika goes, it is sad, yes, but also just a little bizarre…
That would be Project X, though I never saw it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093793/
Wow, that’s got “porn remake” written all over it…well, maybe without the monkeys…