by The New York Times on America Online (page 1)
Soviet Fires New Satellite Carrying Dog; Half-Ton Sphere Is Reported 900 Miles Up
Orbit Completed -- Animal Still Is Alive, Sealed in Satellite, Moscow Thinks
London, Sunday, Nov. 3, 1957 -- The Soviet Union announced today it had launched a second space satellite -- this one carrying a dog. Radio signals indicated that the animal was living, the Russians said.
A satellite six times as heavy as the one sent up Oct. 4 now is circling the earth every hour and forty-two minutes at a height of 937 miles, Moscow said. This means that the speed is nearly 18,000 miles an hour for the 1,110-pound satellite.
The dog was reported hermetically sealed in a container equipped with an air-conditioning system.
Moscow Radio said data received from the second satellite indicated the "functioning of scientific instruments and control of the living activities of the animal are taking place normally."
First Trip Reported
The new satellite carries transmitting equipment and apparatus for measuring cosmic rays, temperature and pressure. It also carries equipment for reporting the condition of the dog.
It first passed over the Soviet capital at 11:20 P.M. Eastern Standard Time last night and then completed its first trip around the earth over Moscow at 1:05 A.M. today, the Soviet Union reported.
The announcement said the second satellite was "dedicated to the fortieth anniversary of the great October revolution," which the Communist world will celebrate in Moscow beginning next Thursday.
The new earth satellite is completing its orbit in about seven minutes more than the original Sputnik, still circling the earth.
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