On Halloween, many area residents squeezed their dogs into costumes and fed them a bit of candy, giving a nod to the notion that a family pet is also a family member. As costumes and candy yielded to thoughts of Thanksgiving, a noteworthy golden anniversary passed with little fanfare.

On November third, 1957, a 13-pound Siberian Husky-mix named Laika became the first creature to launch into outer space. Flying solo on Sputnik-2, she was harnessed in a small cabin barely larger than she, and was fed automatically.

On the tenth day she was to be served her last meal, a poisoned portion, while the satellite would continue bleeping overhead, absent her beating heart. The mission, considered a "rush job" just one month after the first Sputnik, again caused America's eyes to turn skyward yet again with unsettling envy and awe.

Laika's mission was not a secret, and the American press jokingly coined her "Muttnik." Sadly, Laika lasted just four or five hours when overcome by the sun's heat that penetrated her little metal kennel. The Soviet Union covered this up until 1999, then came clean with the facts of Laika's actual mishap.

Little did we know the drama contained inside that shiny speck is the sky, a panting dog restrained in an array of seatbelts struggling to survive while trained to remain motionless in Sputnik's weightless grip.

Laika's story is now taught accurately to Russian school children, their parents, and scientists.

In 1957, Nikita Khrushchev was the Soviet Premier. His son Sergei, then 22, was a scientist in the Soviet space and missile program. Now 72, he lives near Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island. He serves there as senior fellow of the Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Institute for International Studies and has authored 145 books and articles on engineering and computer science.

Reached by phone, he said his research did not involve putting creatures, or cosmonauts, into space, but clearly recalled the incident. "Laika sacrificed her life," he said with some regret in his deep baritone voice. She was a victim, but also a hero. When they launched her, it was fully unknown if we could survive for minutes, hours, or days in outer space. Laika helped prove you can send up a re-entry vehicle successfully, because eventually we could send men to space and it would be possible to return them, not like dead corpses, but still alive.

"She only lasted for several hours because of a miscalculation from the cooling system, which was not built the appropriate way. They thought the heat from the sun would be much lower. After that, cooling became priority, and was one thing we learned from this experiment."

Khrushchev acknowledges he was saddened by Laika's circumstances and pre-mature demise, but is not surprised her story still affects people emotionally today. "She had such a beautiful face. And, like many people, I was a pet lover. So was my father. He had two dogs, a cat, canary, crow, fox, even squirrels." He added sentimentally, "I felt the same about Laika I felt about any guinea pig with a mind we used for medical and scientific experiments."

Steve Shay may be contacted at steves@robinsonnews.com