Happy birthday, cosmonaut Sergey Ryazansky!

Sergey Ryazansky, born November 13, 1974 in Moscow, Russia, has made two trips to the International Space Station. 

His first trip to the ISS was aboard Soyuz TMA-10M in September 2013 has part of  Expeditions 37 and 38.  He conducted 3 EVAs during his stay before returning to Earth in March 2014 after spending over 166 days in space.

His second trip was aboard Soyuz MS-05 in July 2017 as part of Expeditions 52 and 53.  He made one more EVA during his stay during which he deployed 5 nano-satellites.  He returned to Earth after over 168 days in December 2017.

His grandfather Mikhail Ryazansky was involved in the Sputnik program.

Laika, the first animal in space

Laika, the first animal in space, was launched aboard Sputnik 3, November 3, 1957.  Laika proved that humans could survive the launch process but the Soviets had not devised a return to Earth and recovery method (did they care?) so Laika died in orbit.

The adorable little mongrel was found wandering the streets of Moscow so  Soviet scientists figured she had already experienced extreme cold and hunger.  (I suppose they did care. A little.)  Laida has been described as 'quiet and charming'.  Of course, she was.  She  thought she had been rescued  from the streets, not knowing she was going to be sacrificed to science.

The description "quiet and charming" has not been written about the second of her kind in space, Valentina Tereshkova.  Read James Oberg's "Red Star in Orbit" about the Soviet space program, for some fascinating and funny facts about Val.  A hero, she ain't.

Torturing Training, as the Soviets dubbed it, was inhumane.  Laika was expected to survive for several days, with water and a special diet provided.  She had a harness in the capsule that limited her to standing, sitting or lying down.  She could not turn around.


When Sputnik 3 achieved orbit, some of the thermal insulation  was torn away when the nose  cone jettisoned.  This prevented the thermal control system from operating  properly.  The  temperature in the spacecraft rose to 104° F.  Five to seven hours into the flight, no life signs  were detected from the capsule.

 

A monument to Laika, unveiled in 2008, more than fifty years after her death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika

Sputnik launched in 1957

The Soviet Union inaugurated the ‘Space Race’ when it sent Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite into orbit on October 4, 1957.  Launched from Tyuratam in the Kazakh Republic, it weighed 184 pounds and was only 22 inches in diameter.

Its launch caught the world off-guard including the US scientific, military and government.  In 1952, the International Council of Scientific Union proclaimed the time between July 1, 1957 and December 31, 1958 as the International Geophysical Year, since cycles of solar activity would be at a high point.  In October 1954, the council adopted a resolution calling for artificial satellites to be launched during this time period to study the surface of the Earth.

The White House announced plans in July 1955 to launch such a satellite and the US was in the testing stage of the TV-2 rocket when news of the Sputnik launch broke.  The American public feared the Russians could launch nuclear weapons from orbit.

Sputnik orbited the Earth every hour and thirty-six minutes in an elliptical path, 584 miles at its furthest point and only 143 miles at its nearest.  It transmitted signal which could be picked up by amateur radio operators until its batteries ran down on October 26.  Sputnik burned up as it fell back to Earth on January 4, 1958 after travelling about 43.5 million miles and spending 3 months in orbit.