Laika was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft, launched into low orbit on 3 November 1957. As the technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, Laika's survival was never expected. She died of overheating hours into the flight, on the craft's fourth orbit.
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite launched into space. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for three weeks before its three silver-zinc batteries ran out. Aerodynamic drag caused it to fall back into the atmosphere on 4 January 1958.
Sputnik 2, or Prosteyshiy Sputnik 2 was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, on 3 November 1957, and the first to carry an animal into orbit, a Soviet space dog named Laika. Laika died on the fourth orbit due to overheating caused by an air conditioning malfunction.
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II. The technological advantage demonstrated by spaceflight achievement was seen as necessary for national security, and became part of the symbolism and ideology of the time. The Space Race brought pioneering launches of artificial satellites, robotic space probes to the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and ultimately to the Moon.
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was a lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s. He is regarded by many as the father of practical astronautics. He was involved in the development of the R-7 Rocket, Sputnik 1, launching Laika, Sputnik 3, the first human-made object to make contact with another celestial body, Belka and Strelka, the first human being, Yuri Gagarin, into space, Voskhod 1, and the first person, Alexei Leonov, to conduct a spacewalk.
The Soviet space program was the national space program of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), active from 1955 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
During the 1950s and 1960s the Soviet space program used dogs for sub-orbital and orbital space flights to determine whether human spaceflight was feasible. These dogs were surgically modified to provide the necessary information for human survival in space. The Soviet space program typically used female dogs due to their anatomical compatibility with the spacesuit. Similarly, they used mix-breed dogs due to their apparent hardiness.
An autobiographical comic is an autobiography in the form of comic books or comic strips. The form first became popular in the underground comix movement and has since become more widespread. It is currently most popular in Canadian, American and French comics; all artists listed below are from the U.S. unless otherwise specified.
Oleg Georgievich Gazenko was a Russian scientist, general officer in the Soviet Air Force and the former director of the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow. One of the leading scientists behind the Soviet animals in space programmes, he selected and trained Laika, the dog who flew on the Sputnik 2 mission.
Ryan North is a Canadian writer and computer programmer.
Belka and Strelka are dogs that spent a day in space aboard Korabl-Sputnik 2 on 19 August 1960 before safely returning to Earth. They are the first higher living organisms to survive a trip to outer space.
First Second Books is an American publisher of graphic novels. An imprint of Roaring Brook Press, part of Holtzbrinck Publishers, First Second publishes fiction, biographies, personal memoirs, history, visual essays, and comics journalism. It also publishes graphic non-fiction for young readers, including the Science Comics and History Comics collections, and for adults, including the World Citizen Comics, a line of civics graphic books, and biographical works such as The Accidental Czar.
Boom! Studios is an American comic book and graphic novel publisher, headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Nick Abadzis is a British comic book writer and artist.
The DFC was a weekly British children's anthology comic, published by David Fickling Books. The first issue was published at the end of May 2008. The title stood for "David Fickling Comic". Its successor, The Phoenix, launched on 7 January 2012.
Life On Another Planet, also known as Signal from Space, is a science fiction graphic novel by Will Eisner dealing with the social and political consequences of a first contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. It was first serialized in The Spirit and later collected into a single volume.
Vladimir Yazdovsky (1913–1999) was a Soviet space program medical scientist.
Leonid Alexandrovich Voskresensky was a Soviet rocket engineer and long-time associate of Chief Designer Sergei Korolev. He served as launch director for Sputnik and for the first manned space flight, Vostok 1. The lunar crater Voskresenskiy is named in his honor.
Archangel, also written as William Gibson Archangel or William Gibson's Archangel, is a five-issue limited series comic book that was created by William Gibson and Michael St. John Smith, written by William Gibson, illustrated by Butch Guice and story-edited by Michael Benedetto. It is Gibson's first comic book series, which is set in an alternative version of 2016 in which the Vice President of America travels back in time to 1945 to secure power.
The Nenets Herding Laika also known as the reindeer spitz, is an aboriginal spitz landrace of dog originating from the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, in Russia. Unlike other laikas, Nenets Herding Laika are less commonly used for hunting. Instead they have been selected primarily for reindeer herding ability, originally by the Nenets people, and later by reindeer herders through Russia. Nenets herding laika are thought to be the progenitor of several modern breeds, the most well-documented being the Samoyed. Despite this, the breed almost died out during the Soviet era due to lack of interest in preserving genetically purebred examples. In 1994, the Russian Kynologic Federation (RKF) approved the first official standard of the breed.
