However, Laika was not the firstanimal in space. That distinction goes to some fruit flies that the United States launched on a suborbital mission in February 1947. Despite her fame, she also was not the first dog in space; the Soviet Union launched two dogs named Dezik and Tsygan in 19...
But Krushchev's deadline meant the engineers moved their dog deadline up as well. So with just a month to design, build, and launch a new spacecraft, some of the designers' long-term goals had to be left behind. Specifically, there would be no way to get the dog launched into ...