Moscow · RU

Monument to the Dog Laika

On a quiet stretch of Petrovsko-Razumovskaya Alley near Moscow's Dynamo district, a two-metre bronze monument captures one of the most poignant moments in space history: a small white dog standing triumphantly atop an upturned human palm shaped like a rocket. Erected in 2008 on the grounds of the Military Medical Institute where the original experiment was prepared, the monument honours Laika — the first living creature to orbit Earth — and, by extension, all the dogs who gave their lives to make human spaceflight possible.