Caswell, Kurt (Author)
Trinity University Press
Physical Details: 256 pages
Language: English
Laika began her life as a stray dog on the streets of Moscow and died in 1957 aboard the Soviet satellite Sputnik II. Initially the USSR reported that Laika, the first animal to orbit the earth, had survived in space for seven days, providing valuable data that would make future manned space flight possible. People believed that Laika died a painless death as her oxygen ran out. Only in recent decades has the real story become public: Laika died after only a few hours in orbit when her capsule overheated. Laika’s Window positions Laika as a long overdue hero for leading the way to human space exploration.Kurt Caswell examines Laika’s life and death and the speculation surrounding both. Profiling the scientists behind Sputnik II, he studies the political climate driven by the Cold War and the Space Race that expedited the satellite’s development. Through this intimate portrait of Laika, we begin to understand what the dog experienced in the days and hours before the launch, what she likely experienced during her last moments, and what her flight means to history and to humanity. While a few of the other space dog flights rival Laika’s in endurance and technological advancements, Caswell argues that Laika’s flight serves as a tipping point in space exploration “beyond which the dream of exploring nearby and distant planets opened into a kind of fever from which humanity has never recovered.”Examining the depth of human empathy―what we are willing to risk and sacrifice in the name of scientific achievement and our exploration of the cosmos, and how politics and marketing can influence it―Laika’s Windowis also about our search to overcome loneliness and the role animals play in our drive to look far beyond the earth for answers.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Iina Kohonen;
(2017)
Picturing the Cosmos: A Visual History of Early Soviet Space Endeavor
(/isis/citation/CBB291787050/)
Book
Andrews, James T.;
Siddiqi, Asif A.;
(2011)
Into the Cosmos: Space Exploration and Soviet Culture
(/isis/citation/CBB001211733/)
Book
Nicholas Michael Sambaluk;
(2015)
The Other Space Race: Eisenhower and the Quest for Aerospace Security
(/isis/citation/CBB873284440/)
Book
Colin Burgess;
(2021)
The Greatest Adventure: A History of Human Space Exploration
(/isis/citation/CBB522094008/)
Chapter
Asif Siddiqi;
(2016)
Tsiolkovskii and the Invention of ‘Russian Cosmism’: Science, Mysticism, and the Conquest of Nature at the Birth of Soviet Space Exploration
(/isis/citation/CBB405548252/)
Book
Andrew Jennks Andrew Jenks;
(2021-11-02)
Collaboration in Space and the Search for Peace on Earth
(/isis/citation/CBB262469655/)
Article
Norman F. Ness;
(1996)
Pioneering the Swinging 1960s into the 1970s and 1980s
(/isis/citation/CBB670109850/)
Article
Volland, Nicolai;
(2014)
Comment on “Let's Go to the Moon”
(/isis/citation/CBB001214667/)
Article
Baturin, Yu. M.;
Scherbinin, D. Yu.;
(2011)
Photographic and Film Technology on Board Russian Manned Spacecraft, 1961--2000
(/isis/citation/CBB001211396/)
Book
Gallentine, Jay;
(2009)
Ambassadors from Earth: Pioneering Explorations with Unmanned Spacecraft
(/isis/citation/CBB001032660/)
Book
Zimmerman, Robert;
(2003)
Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel
(/isis/citation/CBB000640458/)
Book
Roger D. Launius;
(2019)
Reaching for the Moon: A Short History of the Space Race
(/isis/citation/CBB525707885/)
Book
Gerovitch, Slava;
(2014)
Voices of the Soviet Space Program: Cosmonauts, Soldiers, and Engineers Who Took the USSR into Space
(/isis/citation/CBB001553242/)
Book
Hardesty, Von;
Eisman, Gene;
Khrushchev, Sergei;
(2007)
Epic Rivalry: The Inside Story of the Soviet and American Space Race
(/isis/citation/CBB001231463/)
Book
Jörg Matthias Determann;
(2018)
Space Science and the Arab World: Astronauts, Observatories and Nationalism in the Middle East
(/isis/citation/CBB074723221/)
Book
Siddiqi, Asif A.;
(2003)
The Soviet Space Race with Apollo
(/isis/citation/CBB001032672/)
Book
Treadwell, Terry C.;
(2010)
Stepping Stones to the Stars: The Story of Manned Spaceflight
(/isis/citation/CBB001032661/)
Book
Sparrow, Giles;
(2007)
Spaceflight: The Complete Story from Sputnik to Shuttle---and Beyond
(/isis/citation/CBB001032658/)
Book
Collins, Martin J.;
(2007)
After Sputnik: 50 Years of the Space Age
(/isis/citation/CBB001032663/)
Book
Dreer, Francis;
(2009)
Space Conquest: The Complete History of Manned Spaceflight
(/isis/citation/CBB001032657/)
Be the first to comment!