Sputnik 2

Launch data: Designation 00003 / 1957Beta1 / 57002A Launch date 03 Nov 1957 - 02:30:42 UT Launch site Baikonur, LC1 Launch vehicle Sputnik 8K71PS (#M1-2PS) Satellite type  PS-2 (#1) Crew  dog Laika Mission Scientific: Sun observation Biological research Earth orbit on Nov 3, 1957 - 02:24 (.10) Perigee/Apogee 212 x 1660 km Eccentricity  0.099 Inclination 65.33° Period 103.75 min

Specifications Prime contractor   Platform   Mass at launch 4500 kg ? Payload 508,3 kg Basic shape Cone-cylinder Dimension 31,8 long / 2,58-2,95 dia

Frequencies: 20.005 & 40.002 MHz (Tral-D TM system)

The satellite also featured a slow-scan TV camera (100 lines per frame, 10 frames per second), which relayed images to the ground.

There was also a spectrophotometer for UV (1216 A) and Soft-X-rays (1-120 A) using a photomultiplier tube and a filterwheel. This instrument sent data through a commutated telemetry channel. The instrument was designed by the St. Peterburg physicist A. Jefremov under the direction of Academicians A. Lebedev and S. Mandelstam.

End of life

Description:

• Sputnik 2 was the first biological spacecraft in orbit around the Earth, carrying a dog. It was a 4-meter high cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 meters, weighinbg 508.30 kg. It contained several compartments for radio transmitters, a telemetry system, a programming unit, a regeneration and temperature control system for the cabin, and scientific instruments for measuring solar radiation (ultraviolet and x-ray emissions) and cosmic rays. A separate sealed cabin contained the experimental dog Laika, a stray-dog found on the streets of Moscow. A television camera was mounted in the passenger compartment to observe Laika. The camera could transmit 100-line video frames at 10 frames/second. The spacecraft provided data on the behavior of a living organism in the space environment.
  
  
  
  
• The first being to travel to outer space was a female part-Samoyed terrier originally named Kudryavka (Little Curly) but later renamed Laika (Barker). She weighed about 6 kg. The pressurized cabin on Sputnik 2 allowed enough room for her to lie down or stand and was padded. An air regeneration system provided oxygen; food and water were dispensed in a gelatinized form. Laika was fitted with a harness, a bag to collect waste, and electrodes to monitor her vital signs. The early telemetry indicated Laika was agitated but eating her food. There was no capability of returning a payload safely to Earth at this time, so it was planned that Laika would run out of oxygen after about 10 days of orbiting the Earth.
• After reaching orbit the nose cone was jettisoned successfully but the Blok A last-stage of the booster did not separate as planned. This inhibited the operation of the thermal control system. Additionally some of the thermal insulation tore loose so the interior temperatures reached 40° C. Doctors monitoring Layka in day following the launch began to notice a significant rise in the internal temperature of the biological compartment, apparently a result of inefficiencies and malfunctions in the spacecraft's thermal control system. For almost the entire period of her flight, Layka suffered a modicum of discomfort because of these high temperatures. The poor dog finally succumbed to heat exhaustion on the fourth day of the mission on November 7. Later analysis on the ground based on incoming telemetry confirmed the suspicions of doctors that overheating had in fact caused her death. Since Sputnik 2 had no descent capsule, the dog burned up along with the satellite as it returned to the Earth's atmosphere after 162 days in orbit.
• The Soviets revealed one striking piece of information unrelated to Layka many years later. The scientific instruments on the PS-2 had performed without any problems for a week and had detected evidence for the existence of a radiation belt around Earth. Soviet scientists on the ground who studied the data were, however, "circumspect in their interpretations" of the information. In the end. the first U,S. satellite, Explorer 1, returned the same data a few months later, and the United States claimed one of the great discoveries of the early space age: the existence of a continuous band of radiation belts around Earth.

Origins of Sputnik 2:

• Korolev, who returned to Moscow on 5 October 1957, elected to play with an ambitious idea to sustain the successes of the new space program. Soviet leader Khrushchev immediately called him to find out all the details of the Sputnik launch. During the conversation, he asked casually whether Korolev could launch another satellite, possibly in time for the fortieth anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution on November 7. Without any hesitation, Korolev suggested that his team could launch a dog. Khrushchev was ecstatic about the idea, stipulating only that the launch had to take place by the holiday. The official order for the launch was issued on October 12, 1957, eight days after the launch of the first Sputnik. The new satellite was designated Simple Satellite No. 2 (PS-2), later named the "Second Artificial Satellite" in the Soviet press. Technical operations on the construction of the PS-2 formally began on October 10. No provision was made to return the dog from orbit because neither the technology nor the time was available to prepare for such a mission. Doctors expected to put the animal to sleep with an automated injection of poison prior to oxygen depletion in the life support system. The total mass of the payload was 508.3 kilograms, a significant leap from the modest PS-1.

Mission details:

• 03 Nov 1957: Sputnik 2 (PS-2) launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Sputnik (R-7) rocket into 211 x 1659 kilometre orbit at 65.3 degrees inclination with the dog 'Laika' aboard - by design, the dog cabin and instrument unit remain attached to the launching rocket - some thermal insulation comes loose and subjects Laika to severely high temperatures.
• 04 Nov 1957: Laika dies through the effects of her cabin aboard Sputnik 2 overheating.
• 10 Nov 1957: Radio transmissions from Sputnik 2 cease when its electrical batteries are exhausted.
• 14 Apr 1958: Sputnik 2 enters the Earth atmosphere over the Caribbean Sea as a result of natural decay of the orbit through air drag, and is destroyed by frictional heating.

Astrophilately covers:

21 March 1958: Sputnik 2 make 2000 orbits