Laika, "Little Barker", although her real name was Kudrjavka, which in Russian means "curly". She was captured on the street in Moscow."

Half Husky and half Terrier, she was about 3 years old at the time. She was chosen because she was calm, docile and perfectly adaptable to the Sputnik 2 capsule. Equipped with life support (food and water), the mission did not involve returning. For Laika it was a death sentence.

The interior of the satellite was lined and the interior space was large enough to allow Laika to lie down or lie down. The internal temperature was set at 15 ° F. and a cooling system had to protect the animal from excessive thermal overloads.

November 3, 1957 at 2 am Sputnik 2 was launched into space. Laika probably survived for seven hours. But some sources claim that the agony was much longer: four days.

Alone, in space...!!!

The satellite returned to the atmosphere 5 months later, on April 14, 1958, after circling the Earth 2,570 times. It disintegrated as it re-entered the atmosphere.

Every year before autumn, I feel compelled to tell this story, and perhaps in new words. There is a deep guilt that we must all feel when we read what we did to Laika. Human progress has often been achieved at the expense of animals that had nothing to do with our desire for supremacy.

Many people believe that this was an acceptable price to pay for our achievements, but it seems obvious, even reading this story, that it was really a trivial form of malfeasance.

We had a duty to choose another path. We still have that duty today.

Laika, I will not stop thinking about you every autumn, about what those moments between November 2 and 7, 1957, when we felt entitled to decide about your life must have been like for you.