On November 3, 1957, the little part-husky dog – who was also known as Curly – became the first animal to orbit Earth when she flew out of the atmosphere in the Soviet Union's Sputnik 2 spacecraft.
At the time, the Russians told the world that, until her air supply ran out, the dog had survived for six days inside a capsule which provided her with food, water and oxygen.
Animal rights groups around the world, including in the UK, had fiercely protested the sending of a dog into space and it soon emerged that Laika had in fact passed away from either overheating or asphyxiation within a matter of hours – before she had been due to be poisoned after fulfilling her purpose.
Yet, despite the tragic end to her life, Laika had taken Communist Russia's fierce competition with the United States up another level.
Less than three years after her flight, two other Russian dogs – Belka and Strelka – became the first animals to go into orbit and return alive.
The following year, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to journey into outer space.
And then, most famously, the U.S. achieved the most coveted feat of all with their Apollo 11 mission: they put men on the moon and returned them to Earth, where they were rightly hailed as heroes.
