Laika the Soviet space dog

Laika was sent into space as the first dog in space to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Russian Revolution in 1957. She was very easy to train.
The Soviets trained stray dogs because they had stamina and undemanding were selected for their life on the street instead of pedigree dogs. Laika was selected because she was considered to be very clever. She weighed no more than 6-7 kilograms.
They didn't use monkeys because they were frequent failures due to the monkeys having heart attacks and results would be distorted
even if the monkeys were given anaesthetic. Laika was also chosen for her fur colour (Laika had blown and white fur) as the dog required
for the mission had to have white fur to make it easy to photograph remotely.
Laika was launched into orbit on 3 November 1957 on Sputnik 2. She had 7 day food supply for her made from a special gel by hand (meat
mixed with water). First 4 orbits were good but she died in 10 hours of overheating after her body temperature raised over 41c. The
insulation system in her capsule cooked her alive. Not everything could be thought through during the mission in order to commemorated
the 40th revolution and they couldn't bring animals home with the technology at the time. The remains of Laika were incinerated upon
re-entry on 14 April 1958.
Despite meeting an abrupt end, Laika became a Soviet celebrity in death with her portrait on stamps, cigarettes, matches, envelopes and
a monument was unveiled in 2008. She is the namesake for the animation studio Laika who have adapted Neil Gaiman's Coraline in 2009
as a stop motion film.