On this day in 1957: Laika made history as the first animal in orbit but she never made it home

On November 3, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, carrying Laika, a stray dog from Moscow who became the first living creature to orbit Earth. The mission was designed to study how an animal responded to launch and the early hours of weightlessness, but the spacecraft had no system to bring her home. Laika died within hours, likely due to overheating and severe stress. For years, Soviet officials claimed she had survived for several days before the truth emerged. Her flight was a major milestone in the Space Race, but it also raised difficult questions about the cost of scientific progress and the treatment of animals in space experiments. Video credit: NASA, Roscosmos TV, TIME, Smithsonian magazine