muttnik

plural muttniks

1. humorousslangA dog that is launched into space.

   Sputniks and muttniks, flying through the air.

   1958, Ray Anderson and the Home Folks – Sputniks and Mutniks [sic] (Starday Records 45-342, 1958)

   3 more examples

   If they can get a muttnik up, I don't see why we can't put up a burro-nik.

   1958 June, Boys' Life, volume 48, number 6, page 4

   The advent of sputniks and muttniks has aroused apprehension as to whether we are training the best brains we have in sufficient numbers to keep up with developments in other countries.

   1958, House of Commons debates, official report (Canadian Parliament)

   But a quieter celebration of Laika and her colleagues can be found here at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, where glowing oil portraits of five of the most lauded muttniks (as they were nicknamed by the American press) have been displayed for close to two years.

   2007 November 4, Carol Kino, “Boldly, Where No Dog Had Gone Before”, in New York Times