From Laika with Love

This book reveals the extraordinary life and achievements of Duane Graveline, MD, MPH. A Vermont family doctor, aerospace medical research scientist, USAF flight surgeon and former NASA scientist-astronaut ( NASA Group 4 - 1965.) In 1957, while Graveline was studying at Johns Hopkins University, the Soviet Union followed up their stunning earlier achievement of launching the first satellite into space by sending an instrumented research dog named Laika into orbit aboard Sputnik 2. Becoming a flight surgeon and conducting space medical research was almost an inevitable career path and he soon found himself in the super-secret U.S.A.F. Foreign Technology Division as an analyst for Soviet Bioastronautics. During this time he was the flight surgeon who not only reviewed Laika's biotelemetry, but later that of cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov. His analysis team broke out the secret biodata monitor that enabled the entire NASA tracking network to monitor the cosmonauts on Voskhod 2, at a time when the Soviets had amassed 292 manned earth orbits to 31 for the USA. ........................................................................... Dr. Fred Kelly, MD, is a specialist in aerospace medicine, a retired naval aviator and NASA flight surgeon who headed the medical panel of the accident board investigating the Apollo 1 pad fire that took the lives of three American astronauts.