However, in October of 2002, during a gathering of the World Space Congress in Houston, Texas, it was revealed by Dr. Dimitri Malashenkov of the Institute for Biological Problems in Moscow, that after five to seven hours following the launch of Sputnik-2, no lifesigns were being received from Laika. By the fourth orbit, it was apparent that the little dog had passed away from overheating and stress...undoubtedly an exceedingly painful and distressful death. According to Gyorgi Grechko, a cosmonaut who previously worked as an engineer at the Korolev Design Bureau, it seems likely that when Sputnik-2 bounced off the atmosphere, it failed to separate from the booster rocket and thereby rendered the thermal control system inoperative.
http://www.novareinna.com/bridge/laika.html
The capsule disintegrated when it reentered the atmosphere April 14th, 1958.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika
That is sad. My source was a book from the 1970s. I know the euthanasia system was in provided, but now it turns out it wasn’t used.
It was horrible what they did to Laika.