Sputnik 2 was the second spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union on November 3, 1957. It followed the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, and was designed to carry a living organism into space. The mission's primary goal was to study the effects of space travel on a living being. On board Sputnik 2 was a dog named Laika, making her the first animal to orbit the Earth. The spacecraft provided valuable data about the conditions of space and the biological effects of weightlessness, paving the way for future human spaceflight missions.