52 Years ago today, Laika (a.k.a. Лайка) the Cosmonaut started her journey into outer space, one lonely step for a doggy, one giant step on behalf of mankind. Most of the things you read about her make her life seem short and cold, but her Wikipedia page tells a different story. The personnel who worked with her had lots of nicknames, like Kudryavka (Russian for Little Curly), Zhuchka (Little Bug) and Limonchik (Little Lemon). She was phlegmatic and did not quarrel with other dogs, despite coming from the cold streets of Moscow.
While her time in space was short, she did get to experience it from a calm state of mind, as “the early telemetry indicated that Laika was agitated but eating her food.” Today we remember one brave little doggie.