Think of how famous you and your wife will be if the mission is successful? And besides, your kid will be on the front page of every newspaper and magazine across the land.........dead or alive!@
Then I better take some pictures of him before his mission, I guess. I didn't really engineer in a re-entry/retrieval plan into the design.
He just thinks that Laika the space dog is going to be waiting for him up in outer space.