Laika Became the First Animal in Orbit

Sputnik 2 launched on November 3, 1957, about a month after Sputnik 1. It carried a stray dog named Laika, the first animal to orbit Earth. The spacecraft weighed 508 kilograms (1,120 pounds), many times the mass of Sputnik 1.

Because it was built in a rush, the Soviet team had no way to bring Sputnik 2 back, and its life-support system was not designed for a long mission. Laika likely survived only a few hours in orbit. The spacecraft burned up on reentry on April 14, 1958. The flight showed that a living animal could live through launch and weightlessness, a step toward Yuri Gagarin’s orbit of Earth in 1961.