Alan Olee Book Report

Laika the space dog – the first creature to orbit the planet.

“Laika”. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Laika.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Laika.jpg

Laika (Russian: Лайка;^[1] c. 1954 – November 3, 1957) was a Soviet space dog who became one of the first animals in space, and the first animal to orbit the Earth. Laika, a stray dog from the streets of Moscow, was selected to be the occupant of the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 that was launched into outer space on November 3, 1957.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=6305

For some reason, this story just about brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it.

This link is great for keeping up on just about every mission in the solar system.  Lots of good stuff:

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/index.cfm

This is a good link too:  http://spaceweather.com/

Lots of nice pictures here:  http://spaceweathergallery.com/

And if you are interested in space you have to hang out a bit at:  http://www.space.com/

Excellent.  I took their advice on Jupiter.  It is currently at its closest approach to earth so I checked it out with the telescope and it is spectacular with its itty-bitty little moons.  I saw four of them.  Space.com rocks.

And while you are at space.com, check out Titan the largest of Saturn’s moons:  http://www.space.com/15257-titan-saturn-largest-moon-facts-discovery-sdcmp.html

It’s Raining on Titan  apod.nasa.gov

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And a tribute to Laika:

Apr 12: Laika The Space Dog Gets Statue On Cosmonautics Day