Earth Science C Block Leo Gretzinger
Current Event Review 11/3/14
Jennings, Dana. "Strays Leading the Soviets Into Space." The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Nov. 2014. Web. 03 Nov. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/04/science/soviet-space-dogs-tells-the-story-of-canine-cosmonauts.html?ref=science>.
Strays Leading the Soviets Into Space
Article By Dana Jennings
Did you ever think stray dogs could lead one of the largest and most powerful countries into space? Well neither did I, until I read this article. The Soviets launched their first spacecraft ever, Sputnik 1, into space on October 4, 1957, and have been expanding their impact on space travel ever since. In the 1950s and 60s the Soviet space administration was focused on sending dogs into space for exploration, and the four main dogs were Laika, Miska, Belka, and Strelka. These dogs were originally stray dogs roaming the streets of Moscow, looking for food, but then they were taken to the Institute of Aviation Medicine for rigorous training. The Soviets tended to take in dogs that were small, feisty, were able to withstand the punishing preparation, and hopefully able to survive the life-threatening experience of space travel. However, not every dog they chose could fit these requirements, and many died. Even those who did survive the training suffered as well. For example, many dogs had their food fed to them after it had been chewed by attendants, because the dogs had lost their teeth. The first dog to make it to space was Laika, on November 3, 1957 in Sputnik 2. Unfortunately, she was suffocated by heat, but in spite of this, Laika died as she became a global phenomenon, and a symbol for patriotic sacrifice. The next important space mission for the Soviets was lead by Belka and Strelka. They were put in Sputnik 5 in August of 1960 and launched off to space. These two dogs even returned and Strelka ended up having six puppies! These few dogs led the Soviets in the space race, and put Soviet Russia well in the lead compared to America. They were loved by the soviet public and were on all kinds of merchandise and other accessories and books.
This article showed an important part of the Cold War, and, in fact, all of American and Russian history. This canine interstellar exploration helped the Soviets move along in the space race. This benefitted the world, by introducing the fact that we could get spacecraft and even living beings into space. Also, when the Soviets began sending objects into space before the US did, it really helped President John F Kennedy realize we were falling behind in the space race and in the Cold War, when the USSR and the US were competing in everything. As result, the US set up its own space administration, and tried to catch up with the Soviets in space travel. This impacts us today, because it was the first time the human race sent a living being to space. It marked the beginning of space travel with beings, the start of the space race, and the beginning of recognition of space programs in the world, that still exist today to help us dive deeper and deeper into the vast expanse of the known universe. It also shows how major a part dogs can play in the great moments of history. After Sputnik 5 had landed back on Earth, the dogs involved were famous, with paintings, candy bars, postcards, stamps, pins and commemorative plates of them all over merchandise in Soviet Russia. The dogs were extremely well-liked by the public, and they represented an amazing feat of technology and progress. This article also impacted me because I had always thought that monkeys were better for space travel, but in fact, dogs were the first animal sent to space. Even more surprising is the fact that they were dogs who had, just a short time ago, been roaming the streets as a hungry, stray dogs. Dogs can have a huge impact on humans, even though many people don’t realize it. However, the Soviet space administration did notice this, and as a result they were the first country to get to space with a living being.
Hey Leo:
ReplyDeleteWow. I guess I never would come to think that stray dogs would help accelerate our progress in the space race. As a big lover of history, I had to go in and read this one. You're absolutely right when you say that this article helped to explain the importance of the Cold War, especially at such a specific level concerning the competitiveness between the United States and Soviet Union getting to space. From here, I also thought that monkeys were the norm for space travel, but I guess I was incorrect when I read that dogs were the first to be sent up into space. Lastly, dog fame is new to me. In human history, only actual people tend to be celebrated for amazing feats in advancements towards technology. However, after reading this, we could safely say that dogs are candidates as well. From your summary, I liked the fact that you talked about the fact that the dogs were trained and readied for travel. One of the more fascinating aspects I found from this is the amount of effort the USSR put into this project with their stray dogs. Five missions to space takes much time to achieve, and I'm quite surprised that they were able to do so much with what they had. A shame that the author did not give more extensive details into the dogs' training. Like you, I am a bit skeptical about the nature of their readying to travel to space. However, with the information that you were given, do you think you could have described the journeys of Sputnik 1 and 2 with more depth? I'm actually quite curious to know about the process they went through. Besides that, Leo, this is a great job. I learned much information reading this and I'm quite impressed. Keep it up.
David DiMolfetta
After reading your response I know some more about how we got to where we are today with space travel. I was surprised that the first animal in space was a dog, and I learned that they were the animal the soviets used to make space craft livable. I also didn't know that the first dog died in its travel and that the soviets tried to train the dogs before they were sent up. It thought it was interesting that when the dog survived she had babies and she became a famous figure. I think its strange to send animals to space but I see now that it was necessary to make sure space craft were livable. I was impressed at how you provided the specific detail from the article, you had examples and facts that supported your statement. I would have liked if you had elaborated on the training the dogs had to go through to help them survive on the space craft. Overall, this was a great review and you did a great job of providing detail to help us understand.
ReplyDelete- Charlotte Prior
Leo's review of this article was spectacular. First of all, I had always believed that the first animal in space was a monkey. Now, I know that that is common myth. Also, I was impressed by all the training the Soviets did with the dog, seeing that it is just that. It seems peculiar to me that they did all this training with the dog, and then the dog died on the first space trip for it. Lastly, I learned a lot of background info on the Space Race. This was vitally important to the review, and I was happy to see that Leo did include this background information, as I feel that some other may not have done so.
ReplyDeleteLeo does a great job hooking the reader with just the first sentence. No, I really don't think that ANYONE knew that a STRAY dog led one of the most powerful countries into space. By using this powerful and in-depth topic sentence, Leo really makes it so that the reader wants to read on. Secondly, Leo does a great job here with his summary of the article. He makes it so that you really didn't even need to read the article to know what it was all about. After all, that IS what a great summary does. That being said, Leo's summary WAS a bit too long. After all, it is just a summary. There were some details that Leo included that were not exactly crucial to the main point of the article. These were the details that probably should have been left out all together. Overall, however, I think that Leo did a great job with his review and really left the reader thinking.
There were many aspects of this review that were presented well. One of them was the impact paragraph.The reviewer described in great detail how the Soviets sending dogs into space made our country step up their space game and eventually culminate in sending humans to the moon. Another thing done well was the flow of the review. The reviewer did not jump around and the paragraphs and sentences flowed smoothly. Lastly the summary was well written and summed up the article well.
ReplyDeleteI learned many things from this article. One thing was that the Russians were the first to send living things into space. I had known that they sent dogs into space, but I had always assumed that the US had sent some other living animal up before because we were the first country to send a human into orbit. Another thing I learned is that the Soviets did not just send one dog up into space. I assumed since that dog had died while it was in space the Soviets would not have wanted to send another dog up, but the next time they did they sent two dogs into space.
One thing that could have been improved on in this review is the use of formal writing language and structure. The author uses many personal pronouns and often times the writing is not written in a formal manner. For example, the reviewer puts their own opinion in their summary paragraph when it should have been in the impact, or review paragraph. A summary should be a paragraph or two about was the article was about, not your opinions about the article.