The second active satellite in space was Sputnik 2, launched by the Soviet Union on November 3, 1957. It carried Laika, a dog, making it the first living creature to orbit Earth.

While Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth, it was a simple, uncrewed sphere. Sputnik 2 was significantly more complex, designed to study the effects of spaceflight on a living organism.