The first creature that really entered space was not a human being, but a stray dog on the streets of Moscow called ‘Leica’.
After testing by scientists, Leica, 3 years old weighing about 6 kg, was selected. On November 3, 1957, the former Soviet Union put Leica into an artificial satellite and put it into the Earth’s orbit.
Prior to this, humans did not know much about space and space flight, and the former Soviet Union had not yet mastered the technology of spacecraft recycling. That is to say, for Leica, this was destined to a return journey to death.
Scientists fixed the little guy on a specially-made space capsule seat, and equipped it with a breathing and heart monitor to ensure that Leica ’s physiological data can also be returned after entering space.
The satellite launch was successful, and the follow-up report announced that Leica died after suffocation after completing a flight mission for nearly a week.
But in 2002, Moscow announced Leica ’s true cause of death. A few hours after the satellite took off, Leica died directly from panic and heat exhaustion.
Leica was tied to the seat with an iron chain and locked firmly. The original design of the cabin is that when the temperature exceeds 15 degrees, a fan will automatically cool it. But shortly after launch, the temperature in the cabin continued to rise moderately, and the cooling fan did not play any role at all.
Five to seven hours after the launch, the ground personnel could no longer receive Lycra’s physiological data, and the little guy was so hot that he was alive.
Its body never returned to Earth. On April 14, 1958, Leica’s satellite disintegrated in space.
Leica has only survived in space for less than 7 hours, but its short flight has opened a new page for human space dreams. People created stamps and comic books to commemorate this lovely Wang Xingren.
Facing the vast space and vast universe, the pace of human pursuit has never stopped. But the way to know space, understand space, and enter space is full of twists and turns, sometimes even at the cost of blood and tears.