🌎 Country

Romania

📅 Year

1957

💰 Denomination

1.2 lei

📮 Issue type

Commemorative

🖼 Topic

Space

Laika, a stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, flew aboard Sputnik 2, launched on 3 November 1957, and became the first animal to orbit the Earth. Re-entry technology did not yet exist and she died from overheating within hours, a fact not made public until 2002. This Romanian stamp names her the first traveller into the cosmos and pairs her portrait with the satellite.

Picture: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain