Formed in their native Finland in 1987, Laika and the Cosmonauts were an instrumental surf rock band led by guitarist Mikko Lankinen. At their period of highest visibility in the mid 1990s, their revved-up take on surf rock fit in neatly with contemporaries like Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet and Man Or Astroman? Their breakup was announced in 2008. Laika and the Cosmonauts should not be confused with the contemporaneous British indie electronic band Laika, led by singer-songwriter Margaret Fiedler; both bands took their name from Laika, the dog shot into orbit by the Soviet Union in 1957.