The story of Laika, the first dog in space, has been shrouded in legend, misinformation, and propaganda since she first ...

In the late 1950s, Moscow’s streets were full of stray dogs that adapted to freezing nights and scarce food. One small mixed‑breed stood out to Soviet researchers for her calm nature and size. She was ...

Black-and-white photographs shared by some social media users are said to show Laika, a 13-pound stray from Moscow who became the first dog in space after being launched into low orbit aboard Sputnik ...

In March, I visited the Lowell Observatory — the astronomical research site where Pluto was first discovered — in Flagstaff, Arizona. I stood in line to squint through telescopes at Jupiter and the ...

On November 3, 1957, a Soviet space dog named Laika became the first animal to orbit Earth. Laika was a 3-year-old stray husky-spitz mix from the streets of Moscow, and she was recruited by the Soviet ...

Laika: The space pioneer who opened the cosmos The Space Race between superpowers captured global imagination during the 1950s, but few participants faced stakes as ultimate as a small mixed-breed dog ...