A stray dog named Laika was the first living creature to orbit the Earth in 1957.

Laika launched on November 3, 1957, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. She traveled inside Sputnik 2, a small cone-shaped spacecraft. Scientists like Oleg Gazenko chose stray dogs because they believed these animals could handle harsh conditions better than pets.The spacecraft had a system to provide oxygen and monitors to check Laika's health. During the launch, her heart rate jumped from 103 to 240 beats per minute. This happened because of the high pressure and noise of the rocket. The capsule was very small, measuring only 4 meters high.The mission was not designed to bring Laika back to Earth safely. A cooling system failure caused the temperature inside the ship to reach 40°C (104°F). Data shows that Laika died from heat and stress a few hours after reaching orbit. The Soviet Union originally claimed she lived for several days.Sputnik 2 stayed in space for five months and circled the Earth 2,570 times. It finally burned up in the atmosphere in April 1958. The information from Laika's flight helped scientists understand how space affects the body. This led to the first successful human spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin in 1961.