Second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit (1957)
Sputnik 2
Model of Sputnik 2 at the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow
Mission type
Bioscience
Operator
OKB-1
Harvard designation
1957 Beta 1
COSPAR ID
1957-002A
SATCAT no.
00003
Mission duration
162 days
Orbits completed
2570
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer
OKB-1
Launch mass
508.3 kilograms (1,121 lb)
Crew
Crew size
1
Members
Laika
Start of mission
Launch date
3 November 1957, 02:30 (1957-11-03UTC02:30Z) UTC
Rocket
Sputnik 8K71PS
Launch site
Baikonur 1/5[1]
End of mission
Last contact
14 April 1958
Decay date
14 April 1958 (1958-04-15)
Orbital parameters
Reference system
Geocentric
Regime
Low Earth
Semi-major axis
7,306 kilometres (4,540 mi)
Eccentricity
0.0990965
Perigee altitude
212 kilometres (132 mi)
Apogee altitude
1,659 kilometres (1,031 mi)
Inclination
65.33°
Period
103.73 minutes[2]
Epoch
3 November 1957
Sputnik program
← Sputnik 1
Sputnik 3 →
Sputnik 2 (Russian pronunciation:[ˈsputʲnʲɪk], Russian: Спутник-2, Satellite 2), or Prosteyshiy Sputnik 2 (PS-2, Russian: Простейший Спутник 2, Simplest Satellite 2),[3]: 155 launched on 3 November 1957, was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, and the first to carry an animal into orbit, a Soviet space dog named Laika.
Launched by the Soviet Union via a modified R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile, Sputnik 2 was a 4-metre-high (13 ft) cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 metres (6.6 ft) that weighed around 500 kilograms (1,100 lb), though it was not designed to separate from the rocket core that brought it to orbit, bringing the total mass in orbit to 7.79 tonnes (17,200 lb). It contained several compartments for radio transmitters, a telemetry system, a programming unit, a regeneration and temperature-control system for the cabin, and scientific instruments. A separate sealed cabin contained the dog Laika.
Though Laika died shortly after reaching orbit, Sputnik 2 marked another huge success for the Soviet Union in The Space Race, lofting a (for the time) huge payload, sending an animal into orbit, and, for the first time, returning scientific data from above the Earth's atmosphere for an extended period. The satellite reentered Earth's atmosphere on 14 April 1958.
^McDowell, Jonathan. "Launch Log". Jonathon's Space Report. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
^"Sputnik 2 Launch and Trajectory Information". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
^Siddiqi, Asif A. (2000). Challenge To Apollo: The Soviet Union and The Space Race, 1945-1974.
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