Here is the heartbreaking story of Laika, the first living being to orbit Earth from space.
When it comes to stories about the space race between the USA and the Soviet Union, we’re all aware of stories such as Neil Armstrong landing on the moon or Yuri Gagarin being the first man in space.
But have you ever heard about Laika, the dog who became the first living being to orbit Earth?
However, the achievement came at a heartbreaking price.

Laika was a stray dog who had lived on the streets of Moscow (Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The story of Laika, the Soviet space dog
Following the success of Sputnik 1, Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev wanted a landmark achievement to mark the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution.
Sending an animal to space may sound like a baffling idea to the modern reader, but people of the 1950s were yet to see a man successfully enter space and return alive.
So it’s pretty understandable why the majority of people would be hesitant to jump in a rocket and head up to space with no idea of what their fate would be.
Add this to the ongoing race between Americans and the Soviets who were both desperate to get one over on the other.
Which is why sending an animal up to gain a better understanding of what spaceflight would do to a living being was considered a good idea at the time.

The dog would die from panic and overheating onboard the spacecraft (Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Laika (a word which roughly translates to ‘bark’) was a stray dog found wandering along the streets of Moscow who found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and was chosen by Soviet scientists to be their test subject for the mission.
The three-year-old part-samoyed, part-terrier dog was scooped up from the streets and promptly trained for the trip, which included getting her used to eating jellied food and spun in a centrifuge in order to accustom her to gravitational changes.
Laika’s trip into space would begin on 3 November 1957, with the pooch instantly becoming an international story.
However her story would not have a happy ending.

A model of Laika in the Central House of Aviation and Cosmonautics in Moscow (MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP via Getty Images)
There was no plan to have Laika return to Earth alive, with Soviet authorities at the time claiming dog survived for six to seven days before being euthanised before her oxygen.
However the true circumstances around her death would later come to light in 2002, Russian scientist Dimitri Malashenkov revealing that Laika had only lived for five to seven hours before dying.
It’s believed she died from panic (known from a heart monitor attached to her before lift off) and overheating.
This theory, which is backed up by NASA, who believe the space craft may have overheated due to a combination of a faulty thermal control system and insulation tearing off during launch.
Laika would never return to Earth, with her remains (along with Sputnik 2) incinerating upon re-entry into our atmosphere on 14 April 1958.
Despite Laika’s story having a heartbreaking ending, this didn’t end the Soviets’ plans to experiment on sending dogs into space, with Belka and Strelka becoming the first living organisms to successfully orbit Earth in 1960.
Featured Image Credit: Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Topics: World News, History

Archeologists believe they’ve finally cracked the baffling puzzle which involves a skeleton made up of bones from five different people who lived 2,500 years apart.
Stumbling upon a gravesite from the ancient world isn’t anything particularly new and at first it seemed like the site in the town of Pommerœul, southern Belgium was no different.
However the site would soon reveal a bizarre archaeological anomaly after radiocarbon dating of a skeleton revealed it featured bones from five different individuals.
So how the hell did this happen?

The unique nature of the burial intrigued archaeologists (Barbara Veselka et al, Antiquity)
The skeleton was discovered back in the 1970s and assumed to be from the Roman era, around second or third century AD. This was also backed up by the discovery of a bone pin recovered near the skull, which was common for the time.
However the fetal position which the skeleton was found in intrigued experts, as this was uncommon for burials of the time.
Fast forward to 2019 and the remains were sent for radiocarbon dating, which revealed the skull was in-fact from the Roman era, and belonged to a woman who lived sometime in the period of A.D. 69 to 210.
However, the same couldn’t be said for the rest of the body.
Other bones found in the grave dated back to the Stone Age period, suggesting the skull had been added at a later date by people in the Roman era.
Speaking about how researchers believed the ‘skeleton’ came to be, Barbara Veselka – archaeologist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and study lead – explained it was likely the the burial was ‘was made at once’ and was later revisited by others.

The skull found at the site, which dates back to the Roman era (Barbara Veselka et al, Antiquity)
“There were other bones scattered around the ‘individual,’ suggesting that people could also have come back to the burial,” she explained to Live Science.
As for the ‘why’ aspect of the burial, researchers believe ‘superstition’ would have played a role in assembling the skeleton.
“Disturbance of the burial may have necessitated reparations through the completion or construction of an individual with agency in the afterlife,” the study reads.
“A second possibility is that the entire ‘individual’ was assembled during the Gallo-Roman period, combining locally sourced Neolithic bones with a Roman-period cranium.”
So a group of ‘superstitious’ Romans stumbled upon the site and uncovered the incomplete skeleton, and then decided to complete the body with the skull of a more recently deceased person. The exact reasoning is unclear, however the study concludes the burial was ‘clearly intentional’.

The bones are believed to be made up of five different individuals (Barbara Veselka et al, Antiquity)
“The bones were selected, a fitting location chosen and the elements arranged carefully to mimic the correct anatomical order,” the study adds.
“The resulting burial implies great care and planning, as well as a good knowledge of human anatomy.”
Featured Image Credit: (Barbara Veselka et al, Antiquity)
Topics: History, World News

Did you know there lies a ‘Lost City’ below the waves of our world where microbial communities have been thriving for more than 120,000 years?
While scientists have never been able to verify the legendary sunken city of Atlantis, it appears they’ve at least succeeded in discovering one ancient underwater landscape.
14 years ago, experts sent rovers to investigate what they believed was a towering, rocky landscape.
The vehicles plunged more than 700 metres below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean where they came upon a hydrothermal field, later dubbed the ‘Lost City’.
This field is situated west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and is thought to be the longest-lived venting environment known in the ocean, reports Science Alert.
Attributes of the underwater area include ancient walls thought to be at least 120,000 years old; chimneys spewing 104 Fahrenheit gasses and a monolith, named after Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea.
Despite the harsh conditions, the Lost City plays host to an abundance of ocean-dwelling creatures.
These include snails, microbial communities and various crustaceans.
It’s thought that these beasts feed off the field’s vents, which reportedly spit out hydrogen, methane and other gasses.
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Various chimneys were discovered at the Lost City. (University of Washington/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Moreover, microbiologists also claim that animals such as crabs, shrimps and eels also inhabit the environment.
However, as there is a distinct lack of oxygen present in the Lost City, these aquatic beats are a rare find.
Scientists say that hydrothermal fields, like the one they found in the Atlantic Ocean, probably exist elsewhere.
However, the outlined find remains the only one, which remotely operated vehicles have been able to navigate to thus far.
Speaking about the ancient ecosystem, microbiologist William Brazelton told The Smithsonian in 2018: “This is an example of a type of ecosystem that could be active on Enceladus [Saturn’s moon] or Europa [Jupiter’s moon] right this second and maybe Mars in the past.”
Since its discovery in 2000, there have been numerous calls to protect the site due to its importance.

Scientists have called to protect the site from mining damage. (University of Washington/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
However, in 2018, Poland was given the right to explore 10,000 sq km of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge for mining.
It’s thought the seabed initially garnered attraction due to it being rich in deposits of cobalt, manganese and gold, according to The Independent.
Speaking about the decision, Dr Gretchen Fruh-Green, the scientist who led the discovery said that explorers run the risk of ‘destroying’ the Lost City.
“We could destroy this place before we’ve understood it – before we can really appreciate the significance of these unique white towers and these very strange fluids that are coming out of the ocean floor,” she told Sky News.
“The significance of that for understanding the origin of life, for understanding processes in early Earth.
“It’s our history, it’s the Earth’s history, and if we perturb it we don’t know how fast it will recover, or what influence the perturbation would have on ocean chemistry.”
Featured Image Credit: x/RebbecaRHelm
Topics: History, Science, World News, Environment

Oleg Kononenko has become the envy of space cadets across the solar system after becoming the first person to spend 1,000 days in orbit – but I’ll bet they aren’t too jealous with the repercussions he’ll be dealing with as a result.
The 59-year-old Russian cosmonaut will actually have done even longer than that when he finally leaves the International Space Station (ISS) on 23 September later this year, but the world loves a round number, doesn’t it?
In total, he will have spent a whopping 1,110 days – or around three years – in space by the end of his trip, which is an impressive figure that he has accumulated while carrying out several different missions since 2008.
Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, announced the news in a triumphant statement on Tuesday.
It said: “Today at 00:00:20 Moscow time, Roscosmos state corporation cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, who currently works at the International Space Station, has booked a record of 1,000 days for the first time in the world in terms of total spaceflight duration.”
Kononenko will probably have been celebrating space-style this week alongside his colleagues, NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and compatriot Nikolai Chub, who he launched off with back on 15 September, 2023.
But then again, he’s probably got used to being the person who has spent the longest time in space by now, as he first broke the record in February this year.

Oleg Kononenko has spent more than 1,000 days in space throughout multiple missions since 2008 (Aubrey Gemignani/NASA via Getty Images)
He outshined fellow Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka by beating the previous best of 878 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes, and 48 seconds in space which was set in 2015.
Speaking to state news agency Tass, Kononenko said of his accomplishment: “There’s this awareness that you have achieved something new and important, that you’ve overcome a certain milestone, touched the unknown. It gives you confidence, and pride in the work you’ve done.”
Kononenko revealed that his American counterparts on the ISS were among the first people to congratulate him.
Although it’s all smiles and handshakes on the surface though, staying up in space that long comes at a cost.
The cosmonaut – which by the way, just means that he was specifically trained by the Russian Space Agency – will no doubt be experiencing some strange sensations on the ISS right about now, as humans just aren’t built for living in space.
We’ve all seen the horrifying simulation of what would happen to someone who stepped out of a spaceship without wearing a suit – but what effect does being in space for long durations have on astronauts who are suited, booted and safely indoors?

The Russian cosmonaut is currently still on the ISS with Loral O’Hara and Nikolai Chub (MAXIM SHIPENKOV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Well, according to IFL Science, a lot of weird things start happening to your body when you leave Earth.
Apparently, all the fluids floating around inside of you – such as your blood – moves towards your head as soon as you get into space, but this issue later ends up balancing itself out.
On top of that, you lose blood cells as well as muscle and bone density.
So although Kononenko is probably desperate to put his feet on solid ground by now, he better prepare for an uncomfortable landing when he eventually does.
Other notable space dwellers include NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who has spent a grand total of 665 days in space.
Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov also spent a whopping 437 days and 18 hours consecutively onboard the Mir space station in the mid 1990s, which is more than 14 months altogether.
I reckon I’d be opening the emergency exit and taking my chances with the elements by that point.
Featured Image Credit: NASA/Andrey Shelepin/SHAMIL ZHUMATOV/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Space, Science, World News, Russia

Reconstruction work on Notre Dame, following the fire that seriously damaged the iconic cathedral, uncovered some parts of the structure that would have otherwise been left alone.
In 2022 two lead-lined coffins were found to have been buried beneath the nave of Notre Dame and experts set about identifying who the two occupants were.
Thanks to a brass plaque on one of the coffins, one of the bodies was soon identified as belonging to Antoine de la Porte, the canon of Notre Dame who died on Christmas Eve 1710 at the ripe old age of 83.
All things considered he had ‘le good innings’, as the French would say if they’d ever shown a little more care for cricket and much less for their own language.
Experts noted that his skeleton indicated he’d lived a largely sedentary life and had very good teeth, the mystery skeleton in the next coffin over was quite the opposite.

When restoring Notre Dame two lead coffins were found buried beneath the cathedral’s nave. (AFP)
While de la Porte had died old and with good teeth after a sedentary life, the other body had died young with terrible teeth and appeared to have a penchant for horse-riding.
That body was nicknamed ‘the cavalier’ as his pelvic bone suggested he was an experienced rider.
He seemed to have died in his 30s and suffered from a ‘chronic disease’ that destroyed most of his teeth by the time he was dead, reported The Guardian.
Apparently the end of this chap’s life was not a pleasant or easy one, but now we know who he is.
According to the BBC, the mystery of the skeleton’s identity has been solved as he’s the French poet Joachim du Bellay, who died in his late 30s on 1 January, 1560.
During his life, he had spent some time working at Notre Dame and was recorded as having been buried there, but his tomb had never been found.

Joachim du Bellay, the poor chap suffered from bone tuberculosis and meningitis, and his skeleton’s teeth were in terrible condition. (Public Domain)
His body showed traces of bone tuberculosis in the neck and head as well as chronic meningitis, conditions mentioned in some of the poet’s work.
He and also had a deformation of the skull which would have been caused by wearing a headband as a baby.
The adeptness at riding a horse would make sense as well as he did ride from Paris to Rome and spent a few years living there where he got the hots for a local lady called Faustine.
It’s suspected that his tomb was moved at some point after he was buried as there had been previous efforts to locate the poet’s final resting place, which failed because he wasn’t where records indicated he was buried.
Notre Dame is scheduled to reopen on 8 December.