Laika: Her Place Among the Stars Traditional Geocache
dogez: I am archiving this cache (reluctantly) because I did not have enough time to properly maintain it while I was visiting in Westchester. This was one of my favorites. It MAY reappear because someone offered to adopt it or it may fade into the sunset like Laika. I am happy so many people enjoyed it since 2008.
Laika: Her Place Among the Stars
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
(small)
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This cache is located in the Ward Acres Park off of Quaker Ridge Road. The trails are partially graveled though you will also be walking in grass at one point. Coords may be slightly off because of heavy foliage.
This cache is the second in a series called "PAWS IN HISTORY": animals that made a difference in one way or the other.
I suggest before you go out to search, you should view some very creative YOUTUBE presentations about Laika. I suggest three:
The first, my personal favorite, is a presentation with some very nice background music offered by estacionbuho. The second video is animated by Lucy Dyson(2002), and the third "One Upon a Time" is by Msieur Pierre. They all did very tasteful work on this subject. Please search for them on the youtube offerings.
Many of you might be too young to know about Soviet Cosmonaut Laika. During the early days of space travel, the Soviet Union believed that organisms from Earth could live in space (at least for a short time). Deciding to test this theory, they chose Laika, a 3 year old stray from Moscow to become the first dog blasted into orbit (1957) in the space rocket Sputnik 2. Laika was trained for her ill-fated journey. She needed to live in small spaces, to wear space clothing, to eat jell-like food and to adapt to the vibrations of space lift off and travel. Female dogs were chosen because of their temperment and the fact that they did not lift their leg to urinate.
Laika's voyage was always planned to be a one way trip. Scientists monitored her heartbeat and pulse rate in her hermetically sealed capsule. Laika unfortunately was a pawn in the Soviet-U.S. space race at the time. It has only been in the past few years that new evidence was released by the Russians as to how she passed on. Originally it was believed that she survived 4 days in space but in fact, because of overheating and stress, she survived for only 5-7 hours. After Laika, several other space dogs, such as Belka and Strelka, were sent into space too and their endeavors proved successful for acquiring information for future space travel. If anything, the voyage of Laika engaged conversation about the treatment of animals in space in the West and that organisms could survive in weightlessness.
On the 50th anniversary of her journey, (2007) a monument to her memory was placed to commemorate her historic flight in the now Russian Federation.
You will find Laika's orange space capsule hidden in this park.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
ZP, A, O, RO, E, naq O. Cvpx bar.