Laika the First Martyr of Space

The legendary Laika was nothing more than a three-year-old dog, a three-year-old husky and terrier cross, who lived on the streets of Moscow. Like many others of her kind, she had been captured for everyday scientific experiments. But, unlike the others, she was eventually chosen to travel on Sputnik-2.
It was not the big fate that ended up in an insulated, tiny compartment, equipped with an air-renewing device, subject to high temperatures, noises and accelerations. Secured by harnesses and with the body covered with electrodes.
The prediction that Laika survived at least ten days in space failed, as something went wrong at the time of launch.
The Russians were silent about the event. Only several days later her death was officially confirmed. According to official sources from Moscow, Laika would have died after ingesting the last portion of food, properly poisoned to avoid a long agony to the animal. It took the Russians many years to recognize that the bitch did not stay alive for ten days, but only seven to eight hours.
Laika from the beginning was doomed to become the first martyr of space.