Unpublished short fiction

Just after the middle of the 20th century, the exploration of outer space began moving from novels, stories, films, and comics—our collective human imagination—into real life. The USSR was the first to make big moves. In 1957 they successfully launched a small satellite called Sputnik 1 into orbit around Earth, and its steady signal could be heard by anyone with a shortwave radio receiver. A month later, the Soviets successfully launched a street dog named Laika into orbit aboard a thirteen-foot-tall capsule called Sputnik 2. And while Laika the dog died within hours, likely due to overheating in the capsule, the launch was considered a major step toward human space flight. Just four years later, in 1961, the USSR finally sent cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into low-earth orbit, making him the first human ever to escape Earth’s atmosphere. Later that very year, NASA’s Project Mercury sent Alan Shepherd more than a hundred miles skyward.
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3,310 words