The RSPCA said it received calls of protest even before the Moscow Radio announcement of the launch had ended. The National Canine Defence League is calling on all dog lovers to observe a minute's silence every day the dog is in space. The satellite is transmitting telegraphic signals that are being picked up from receiving stations around the globe.Īnimal welfare organisations expressed outrage at news that the Russians have sent a dog into outer space. It will take one hour and 42 minutes to circle the Earth. It is travelling more than 900 miles, (nearly 1,500 km) above the Earth - higher than Sputnik I - and is orbiting at about five miles (8km) a second. Sputnik II weighs half a ton (508kg) and carries instruments for studying solar and cosmic rays, temperature and pressure, two radio transmitters and a hermetically-sealed container with "an experimental animal" inside, as well as oxygen and food supplies. Moscow Radio reported the second satellite was launched to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution and gave details about the spacecraft's contents and orbit. Russian scientists are particularly interested in the effects of solar radiation and weightlessness on living organisms. The dog has been fitted with monitors to check its heartbeat and other vital signs and was reported to be calm during the first hours of the flight. Sputnik I, launched on 4 October, is still circling the globe. The dog, described as a female Russian breed, was projected into space this morning from Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard the artificial space satellite Sputnik II. The Soviet Union has launched the first ever living creature into the cosmos.
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