Sputnik 2 weighed six times more than the first satellite
On this day · 3 November 1957
In just one month the Soviets jumped from an 84-kilogram beach ball to a half-ton spacecraft carrying a living dog.
When Sputnik 1 reached orbit on October 4, 1957, it was essentially a polished metal sphere the size of a beach ball, weighing just 83.6 kg (184 lb) and beeping a radio tone back to a startled world.
Barely a month later, on November 3, 1957, Sputnik 2 followed — and it was a different beast entirely. At 508.3 kg (about 1,120 lb), it weighed roughly six times more than its predecessor, hauling a pressurized cabin, life-support gear, and the dog Laika into orbit.
The leap was deliberate theater as much as engineering. Each heavier payload advertised the lifting power of Soviet rockets — the same boosters that could, in principle, throw a warhead across continents. To anxious observers in Washington, a half-ton satellite circling overhead just weeks after the first was a pointed message.
That rapid scaling, from a tiny transmitter to a living passenger, showed how fast rocket payloads were growing at the dawn of the Space Race.
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