what was the first living thing to travel in space in 1957?

Answer 1

Laika, a stray mongrel, part Siberian husky, found on the streets of Moscow, was the first living creature in space. It was in Sputnik 2 in 1957. She was christened the "muttnik" in the sputnik by the world's media. The name Laika means "barker".

Three dogs were trained for the Sputnik 2 flight: Albina, Mushka, and Laika. Russian space-life scientists Oleg Gazenko selected and trained Laika. Albina flew twice on a high-altitude test rocket, and Mushka was used to test instrumentation and life support.

It will be recalled that this was the time of the Cold War and USA-USSR rivalry. Nikita Krushchev. the new Soviet leader, who had succeeded Stalin in 1953 was determined to make propaganda out of beating the Americans into space.

Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, was launched on October 4, 1957. With the 40th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, due in a month. Krushchev ordered that a further satellite be launched to commemorate the anniversary and that an animal be aboard it.

Sputnik 2 was launched on November 3, 1957 and carried the first living passenger, a dog named Laika. The mission planners did not provide for the safe return of the spacecraft or its passenger, making Laika the first space casualty.

The whole project was hastily put together at breakneck speed by the chief designer Korolyov. Working a such speed, there was no time to plan how to bring Laika back to earth and she was sent into space knowing full well she would die there. Which she duly did, within hours of the blast-off, from a combination of heat and stress.

This was finally admitted to be the case when in October 2002, Dr. Dimitri Malashenkov, one of the scientists behind the Sputnik 2 mission, revealed that Laika had died five to seven hours after launch from overheating and stress.

According to a paper he presented to the World Space Congress in Houston, Texas, "It turned out that it was practically impossible to create a reliable temperature control system in such limited time constraints." Sputnik 2 was finally destroyed (along with Laika's remains) during re-entry on April 14, 1958, after 2,570 orbits.

The first attempt to launch Sputnik 3, on February 3, 1958, failed, but the second on May 15 succeeded, and it carried a large array of instruments for geophysical research. Its tape recorder failed, however, making it unable to measure the Van Allen radiation belts.

Sputnik 4 was launched two years later, on May 15, 1960.

Sputnik 5 was launched on August 19, 1960 with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants on board. The spacecraft returned to earth the next day and all animals were recovered safely.

With no anniversaries to commemorate and no pressure to beat the Americans in getting a living creature into space, it proved possible to plan for and achieve their safe return.

Meanwhile the Soviet Vostok programme was developed which put Yuri Gagarin, first man in space into orbit in Vostok 1 on April 12 1961 and Valentina Tereschkova, first woman into space for 3 days in Vostok 6 in 1963. Both of which beat the Americans.

However back on earth, the Cold War hotted up in 1962 with The Cuban Missile Crisis and Kennedy faced off with Krushchev, who backed down and was seen to have lost the real-life confrontation, though he had won the symbolic one in the Space Race.

Krushchev was removed from power by his party colleagues in 1964 for his "political errors" and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev. He spent the last seven years of his life under close supervision of the KGB.

To his credit, Krushchev initiated the Soviet space program that launched Sputnik I and Yuri Gagarin, getting a head start in the space race. He also participated in negotiations with U.S. President John F. Kennedy for a joint moon program, negotiations that ended when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.

Arguably, it was Krushchev's initiatives in the USSR being first into space that gained him the credibility for a joint Moon program to be discussed. And Laika can perhaps be seen as an expedient pawn to be sacrificed in the pursuit of that diplomacy. Later Soviet-USA co-operation on the MIR space station must surely be regarded as a fruit of Krushchev's labours.

It was not until 1998, after the collapse of the Soviet regime, that Oleg Gazenko, one of the scientists responsible for sending Laika into space, expressed regret for allowing her to die: "The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We shouldn't have done it... We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog."

The dog it was that died but Gazenko it was that listened to and obeyed His (political) Master's Voice.

Answer 2

Sputnik 1 was launched successfully in October 1957. Its success prompted Kruschev to want a dog in space by November 1957, the 40 th anniversary of the Russian Revolution (Old style Calendar). Sputnik 2 was conceived, designed, built and launched within the one month remaining, It was an excellent propaganda coup but it did not exactly endear Russia to animal lovers

Answer 3

Everybody got this one wrong. For one thing it wasn't 1957. It was 1944. The first V2 rocket got to 82 miles altitude. Officially space. And the first living thing in space would have been the various bacteria and whatever bugs might have hitched a ride on it.
Even if you don't count that, Sputnik 1 would have had millions of microscopic lifeforms on it.

Answer 4

The other answers relate to the 1st living thing to orbit the earth which is therefore not the right answer. Space starts a long way up and was reached by balloon before the Russians. The 1st recorded thing up there was a gerbil called Beko221.

Answer 5

First living thing in space was a fruit fly, i don't know if it was in 1957 though.

Answer 6

i know the dog, Lyka, was the first to travel in space but i don't know if it was in the year 1957.
sorry

Answer 7

The first animals sent into space were fruit flies, aboard a U.S. launched V2 rocket in mid July 1946.

Answer 8

A Russion dog

Answer 9

the first living thing is a dog named laika! followed by Niel

Answer 10

Dog?