It all started with a quiz question from a newspaper. “What was the name of the dog that was the first living thing to go into space and orbit the Earth?”
The answer is Laika, a stray dog found on the streets of Moscow, who became immortal when she was launched into space on November 3rd, 1957, a month after Sputnik became the first satellite.
Laika died of hypothermia in her capsule, but she survived long enough to confirm that human beings could withstand space flight.
It’s an unlikely story to inspire Emmy’s hook-laden, earworm, Europop-friendly Laika Party which comfortably won Irish Eurosong on Friday night and will represent Ireland at the Eurovision in May.
“I said to…