Originally Posted by **********

You forgot to tell everyone about the Dog ("Laila") you launched in 1957 with "Sputnik 2", but with no return plan.



It was not even a special dog - it was someones pet. He was launched into space with no return program, and meant to die up there. Let's see. The dog was probably terrified being strapped into the capsule, scared so bad he shit himself during launch, and then oh yeah, died a slow death while running out of air, with its heart beating 4 times its usual rate, in a tiny little capsule that was 104 degrees inside. Nice.

It is also coming to light now that cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was not really the first man in space - only the first to survive. Brilliant.

And also, what you said is not true. Do a google search for Achilles and Giovanni Battista Judica-Cordiglia. They started picking an SOS signal in Morse Code after a Russian launch went horribly wrong including the dying gasps and fading heartbeat of a cosmonaut whose signal was getting farther and farther away from Earth![/I]. Russia may have some dead cosmonaugts still flying around up there...