Day 7 of our 24 dogs of Christmas must be one of the saddest dog stories of history. Astronaut Laika, a dog that was the first living creature to be launched into Earth orbit, on board the Soviet artificial satellite Sputnik Nov. 3, in 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first-ever living animal into orbit: a dog named Laika. The flight was meant to test the safety of space travel for humans, but it was a guaranteed suicide mission for the dog since technology hadn’t advanced as far as the retur

Laika was a stray dog from Moscow who made history as the first living creature to orbit Earth. In 1957, the Soviet Union sent her aboard Sputnik 2, a mission that marked a major milestone in space exploration — but also raised serious ethical questions. Her flight demonstrated that a living organism could survive the stresses of launch and the weightlessness of space, paving the way for human space travel. Tragically, Laika died just a few hours after takeoff due to overheating, as the technolo