Carried dog Zvezdochka and mannequin Ivan Ivanovich. Ivanovich was again ejected from the capsule and recovered by parachute, and Zvezdochka was successfully recovered with the capsule on March 25, 1961 7:40 GMT.
Officially: Development of the design of the space ship satellite and of the systems on board, designed to ensure man's life functions during flight in outer space and return to Earth.

At 06:30 Keldysh gives the go-ahead for launch. There is good weather at the pad and recovery zone. General Goreglyad, Azbiyevich, Karpov, and five of the cosmonauts visit the pad, then go to the IP tracking station. Kamanin, Yazdovskiy, and Popovich stay at the command bunker just 10 m from the rocket at the pad. At T-01:20, Kamanin and Popovich test the radio communications reliability. They transmit five times: 'Kedr' (cosmonaut call sign) -- 'Zarya' (capcom call sign) - 'Communications test - 1-2-3-4-5 - how do you read?' - 'Zarya - OK'. Popovich and Korolev practice a similar test twice. At T-01:00 a sensor on the third stage fails. Korolev consults with Kosberg, and decides to continue anyway. At T-00:10 from launch everyone moves into the bunker. Korolev, Kirillov, and Voskresenskiy will direct the launch from there. At T- two to three minutes the stopwatch is started. 18 minutes later word is received that the capsule is in orbit. Three Il-14's head back to Moscow with all of the VVS officers and cosmonauts (34 total). Before takeoff word is received that the capsule has landed successfully in the Izhevsk area. Good signals are being received from the P-37 and R-126 transponders, and a valid parachute deploy signal was received.