"THE COLD WAR - SPUTNIK - AND SOVIET SPACE DOG LAIKA" Please note - BOLD TYPE IS HISTORICAL and NORMAL TEXT IS FICTIONAL by: Aaron George Bailey Sherwood, Arkansas USA This Web Page was created on October 4, 2007 CHAPTER #9 FORTY YEARS LATER - THE REST OF THE LAIKA STORY Dr. Oleg Gazenko Speaks from the Heart |
On June 26th 1998, at a space conference in Moscow some forty plus years after Laika's flight, an old
Soviet space official reflects back. The following statements are from Dr. Oleg Gazenko, then 79, who
headed the Soviet program to send animals into space in the late 1950s. Gazenko and his team sent Laika
into space one month after the launch of Sputnik one, giving the Soviet Union another propaganda victory
over the United States. They knew Laika would never return. It was Cold War competition, not science,
which was the prime factor in early Soviet launches such as the Laika mission. At the time, Soviet officials
portrayed Laika as a brave dog who sacrificed her life for the progress of humanity. Her photo was widely
reproduced and children wore her image on lapel pins. -SEE BELOW
THE FOLLOWING ARE KEY EXCERPTS FROM A MSNBC WWW REPORT -(June 1998)
"The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We shouldn't have done it," said Oleg Gazenko.
"We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog. She was condemned to die."
"My greatest mistake was Laika, because at that time we did not know how to return a capsule to earth."
"It was 1957 and we only knew then how to launch a capsule into space, but not how to land one. Of
coarse we could have waited three or four years until we had created a system to land the capsule."
"There was a chance to launch but no self-analysis of what we were doing. We were able to launch, so we
thought - all right, let's do it," said Dr. Gazenko during the interview.
TRANSCRIBE FROM CNN SOUND BITE ON JUNE 26, 1998
“A pioneer of the Soviet Unions early space program says he regrets sending the first dog into space.
Laika was hurled into space aboard a capsule after the first Sputnik satellite was launched in 1957. Oleg
Gazenko* says scientists didn't know how to return a capsule to earth back then, so Laika's craft burned up
in the earth's atmosphere,,,,, He says the more time passes the sorrier he is about it.”
*NOTE- Dr. Gazenko passed away on November 17, 2007, very near the 50th anniversary of the Laika flight.
THE CONQUERORS OF SPACE MONUMENT |
| Laika has her place on the Conquerors of Space Monument (see ABOVE and BELOW) which is located in Moscow, Russia. One key phrase inscribed at the bottom, reads, "We have forged the wings of fire for our land and our century." |
