Remembering Laika, the Space Dog, 50 Years On

Her high-tech coffin orbited until August 14, 1958, when it burned up upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere.

Despite the operation's problems, Soviet scientists learnt enough from it to send more dogs into space and bring them back safely.

And less than four years later, the door to exploration of the cosmos opened for humans when Yuri Gagarin became the first man to reach outer space on April 12, 1961.

Laika, at a stroke, became the most famous dog that ever lived, although for animal welfare activists she was simply the best-known in a long list of animal martyrs who were sacrificed for space.

Today, at least half a dozen songs are devoted to her lonely, one-way trip.

Four decades after the flight, Russians unveiled a memorial to Laika at the Institute for Aviation and Space Medicine, at Star City, just outside Moscow, where she and two other dogs were trained.