1957–1969: Opening the Space Age
Sputnik 2
Carried Laika, the first living creature to orbit Earth.
Era 1 of 6 · full record in the catalog
- Launch
- 3 Nov 1957
- Lead / partner
- Soviet Union
- Target
- Earth orbit
- Category
- Space biology
- Status
- Partial success
- Vehicle
- Sputnik-PS 8K71PS
- Mass
- unknown
- Orbit / trajectory
- Geocentric
- Duration
- 162 days
Why it happened
Sputnik 2 flew during 1957–1969: Opening the Space Age, as part of Soviet Union's work toward earth orbit. A sourced write-up of the context around this mission is still on the editorial queue; nothing here is invented to fill the gap.
The mission
The full narrative of this mission is pending research and writing. What is recorded so far: Carried Laika, the first living creature to orbit Earth.
Results
Carried Laika, the first living creature to orbit Earth.
Related missions
Sources & image credits
- Heritage Images—Hulton Archive/Getty Images · license: rights-managed (source, checked 2026-08-24)
- Mission record: AntarikshPedia canonical dataset (data-sources/missions_timeline.md)
- Specifications reference: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog