The Mighty Sparrow: “Russian Satellite”

The Soviet space dog Laika (“Barker”) in a flight harness.

The King of Calypso laments the fate of Laika, the Russian dog launched into oblivion aboard Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957. Although the Soviet government initially claimed she was euthanized prior to oxygen depletion, in 2002 it was revealed that she died of heat exposure soon after launch.