The Goldmine.
  • Spy vs Spy
    • At Fox River
    • Patty and the Tet Offensive
    • Pale and Interesting >
      • More pale and interesting
      • Older, still pale, possibly only interesting to a couple of people
    • The Heckler and Koch Affair
    • Spy vs Spy
  • Peeling the Onion
  • Old unhappy far-off things
    • Wipers and the Ypres League
    • Fanny and Cobber.
    • In Memoriam
  • Slightly Saltirical
    • A Dexter Hand
    • The Boar-Worshippers
  • Taken by the Hand
    • Geranium Days
    • The Lockhart Papers
    • A Martial Aspect
    • O Perfect Love >
      • Sonnets Unplugged
      • Stout Cortez
    • Tea and an Ascot
  • Childe Harold
    • Monikers >
      • The Sandman and Sleipnir
    • Bos Indicus
    • Three things in a field >
      • Dance With A Bull
  • Eureka (Stockade)
    • Two for Joy
    • At the Bottom of the Garden >
      • Coins of the Realm
  • Superstitious Nonsense
    • Leaves of Tea
  • The Best of Times
    • The Space Race >
      • C.P.Snow
  • Sorry luv, I missed that.
  • Valley Girls
    • Britten, B et al >
      • Gammon and Spinach
      • The Blue Flowers >
        • The Beautiful People
        • The girls from 9DY Rangi Ruru >
          • The Fires of Hell and other Works of Art
        • The Cat's Paw and other Feline Fables
        • Flowers in Bloom
      • The Moon and Daisies
      • Snowmaiden Revelry
  • Sitting on Custard
  • The Long White Grass
    • Somewhere...
  • I have pictures
  • The Queen's Cake
  • A Portrait by Hoppner
  • The Iron Fist.
    • Slow twitching gams.
  • Whips and Whatnot
  • Showering with Friends

Dogs in Space

Picture
Laika, a mongrel off the streets of Moscow. Died November 3rd 1957. (NB This may be misinformation.)
Someone wondered once if I was a secret Russian after I had made a comment about the British in space.(Not a success story). I think I said that I was more of a forgotten Latvian. The chat moved on to lobsters and yabbies. I like my discussions to be wide-ranging even when absurd.
My generation (post (just) space travel) were, I think, very interested in space. We watched the moon landings with great interest, naturally. And, as far as I am concerned, it happened. People nowadays are mad. Apart from anything else one of my family was head of the CSIRO in Australia, a solar physicist of note, and head of the team that designed and built the radio telescope at Parkes in NSW. (See 'The Dish' for more on this). A serious and brilliant man. And I was definitely in love with the idea of Yuri Gagarin. None of the American astronauts had quite the same appeal. That's just one of my little biases. But the story of Laika quite breaks my heart.