People who act like Laika’s sacrifice was some unique soviet cruelty are being silly and need to re-evaluate how history’s been presented to them. Animal testing of flight exploration has always been the norm, and the reason has always been that it is dangerous and could easily lead to death. Two-thirds of the monkeys the US launched on its repurposed Nazi V-2s died. The dogs the USSR launched into space before Laika were recovered, and were in fact the first higher animals to be recovered from a spaceflight, as all the US’s monkeys so far had died - not a single monkey would survive US spaceflight until two years after Laika’s flight. These animals were all sent into space, but only briefly, in a ballistic trajectory. Laika was sent into orbit. Laika’s ship was the second ever to reach orbit, after Sputnik 1. It was not possible at the time to recover anything from orbit. The next Sputnik flight with animal passengers, Korabl-Sputnik 2, successfully recovered the first ever animals from orbit. Laika was the one lone point at which recovery was not planned - the pivotal one, where we had finally been able to reach orbit, to be able to stay in space, not just pass through it; but could not yet bring anything back. If survival were impossible up there, it may not have been worth it to continue. Yes, they knew Laika would die - but, empirically speaking, so did the US for each and every monkey it had launched. Survival was not the norm, and was a feat achieved so far only a few times, by the USSR. It is sad, yes, and perhaps unethical - but it was in no way unique.
Yeah 100%. And, honestly, some of the exceptionalism around her sacrifice comes down to how much Laika was honoured by the USSR posthumously - she was rightly presented as a hero of spaceflight.
And, like… When the Montgolfiers were developing the first lighter-than-air flight, it was completely unknown whether it would be survivable. They sent up a balloon, with three animals. A sheep, a rooster, and a duck. The duck was a control. It lived in the sky already - if it died, they knew the balloon was at fault. The rooster had avian physiology, but couldn’t fly - whether it died or not would explain whether it was an issue of biology or adaptation. The sheep was the human-analogue. If it died, they would know manned flight was impossible.
At the conclusion of the flight, all three survived. But, the reason they were sent up was so they could die. After their demonstration, the first human flight took place. The king proposed sending convicts, as it was still unsafe, but the inventors demanded they be the first. It was stupid, as a thousand other volunteers existed that would be equally ethical, without risking a loss of expertise, but they demanded anyway. They considered it an honour.
For all the ways a stray dog could die, none of them really differ to the dog. But, among humans, this was the most respected and revered death she could possibly have had. And she was memorialised for it for decades to come.
The thing about Peggy hill is you see her in some episodes and you might think well this woman has some lesbionic mannerisms. but the truth is she’s just one of those very sporty southern moms who inexplicably gets away with not upholding their side of the gender roles even in communities where everyone is kinda expected to do that. Like she kinda gets to do what she wants. Cause she’s Peggy that’s just how Peggy is. And she has a husband and a kid so they’re like ok fine I guess
Like if you told her she looked gay here she would laugh really awkwardly and be like Well, I hope you mean that as in “happy”, because in that case I am positively gay. I am so gay and in love with my wonderful husband Hank. And Hank would be like *texan sigh* Peggy, You can’t go around tellin people you’re “gay” for me. People are gonna start to get the wrong idea. And then shed accuse Hank of being homophobic and double down
