Major role for Vladimir Yazdovsky, a 44 year old anthro deer man who works as a scientist and a surgeon in Soviet Russia, circa 1957. Based on the real life historical figure of the same name, he's extremely smart, skilled, and calculating with his work. Yazdovsky presents himself as a stoic pragmatist, but internally, he's conflicted and uncertain. On one hand, he's helping to make history by being involved with Sputnik 2, the first satellite to ever carry a person on it. But on the other hand, he knows it's a one way trip that Laika, the test subject he has to help train, has no chance of surviving. Yazdovsky tries his best not to get emotionally attached to her, but thanks to one of his colleagues, Aleksandr Galkin, he's thrown into a spot of doubt and hesitancy. He has to decide whether his loyalties belong to the Soviet state that he serves, or to his inner humanity and sense of remorse for this doomed dog.