This tender graphic novel deals with the birth of spaceflight from the point of view of Laika, the first dog in space, who went aboard the Soviet Union's Sputnik 2, in late 1957, in a flight that was never meant to return to Earth. As the story is told here, after the success of the first Sputnik in October 1957, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev wanted to capitalize on the propaganda value of the world's first satellite and pushed for a new launching for the anniversary of the Russian revolution, just a month later, this time bringing into orbit for the first time a living being into space. There was little time for preparing a proper satellite, so a non retrievable rocket was launched. Thus, the moral of this tale is that a dog's life was sacrificed for the honor of the nation (there was little scientific value in Sputnik 2). The story here has three protagonists: Laika, the female stray dog turn sacrificial space pioneer (a moving, presumably invented story about her troubled, wandering life as an unwanted dog before being caught for the Soviet space program is presented here in the first chapters), Korolev, the driven and ambitious chief designer and a former gulag inmate during Stalin's time, and the fictional Yelena, the female lab technician in charge of Laika's health who, despite the advice of her superiors, comes to care for her personally. With drawings that are attractive without being flashy, this is a very entertaining book. It is also quite poignant, without being overtly sentimental.