Laika was the first animal to orbit Earth, traveling aboard the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 in 1957.
Laika was a stray dog selected from Moscow’s streets because Soviet scientists believed street dogs were accustomed to harsh conditions. Sputnik 2 launched on November 3, 1957, only one month after Sputnik 1. The mission demonstrated that a living creature could survive launch and weightlessness.
At the time, engineers had not developed a method to bring Sputnik 2 safely back to Earth. Laika therefore became an early, tragic symbol of space exploration. Later evidence showed that she survived only a few hours because of overheating and stress, rather than for several days as initially reported.
Belka and Strelka became the first dogs to orbit Earth and return alive aboard Sputnik 5 in 1960. Ham was a chimpanzee who flew on an American suborbital mission in 1961.