So this is Laika’s untold story.
Now, do we have any new information about a test flight the Soviets launched in 1960, which was supposedly a satellite carrying a dummy cosmonaut? I have heard rumors that it was actually a real cosmonaut, but they couldn’t bring him back alive, so they lied about the mission, effectively erasing the first man in space from history.
This article is four years old, so it’s not exactly “new.” But the “lost cosmonaut” claim has apparently been debunked.
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/lost-cosmonaut-conspiracy
Soviets launched dummy named “IVAN IVANOVITCH” aka John Doe on test flights known as Korabl Sputnik through 1960 and early 1961
Dummy has a placard in helmet visor “MAKET” or dummy in case found would not think was dead cosmonaut or space alien
Dummy would transmit recorded sounds of breathing and heart beat to test air - ground telemetry
US did same thing launching dummy to test Mercury spacecraft before John Glenn orbital flight