Posted on 10/04/2017 1:54:33 AM PDT by iowamark
The Soviet Union inaugurates the “Space Age” with its launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. The spacecraft, named Sputnik after the Russian word for “satellite,” was launched at 10:29 p.m. Moscow time from the Tyuratam launch base in the Kazakh Republic. Sputnik had a diameter of 22 inches and weighed 184 pounds and circled Earth once every hour and 36 minutes. Traveling at 18,000 miles an hour, its elliptical orbit had an apogee (farthest point from Earth) of 584 miles and a perigee (nearest point) of 143 miles. Visible with binoculars before sunrise or after sunset, Sputnik transmitted radio signals back to Earth strong enough to be picked up by amateur radio operators. Those in the United States with access to such equipment tuned in and listened in awe as the beeping Soviet spacecraft passed over America several times a day. In January 1958, Sputnik’s orbit deteriorated, as expected, and the spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere.
Officially, Sputnik was launched to correspond with the International Geophysical Year, a solar period that the International Council of Scientific Unions declared would be ideal for the launching of artificial satellites to study Earth and the solar system. However, many Americans feared more sinister uses of the Soviets’ new rocket and satellite technology, which was apparently strides ahead of the U.S. space effort. Sputnik was some 10 times the size of the first planned U.S. satellite, which was not scheduled to be launched until the next year. The U.S. government, military, and scientific community were caught off guard by the Soviet technological achievement, and their united efforts to catch up with the Soviets heralded the beginning of the “space race.”
The first U.S. satellite, Explorer, was launched on January 31, 1958. By then, the Soviets had already achieved another ideological victory when they launched a dog into orbit aboard Sputnik 2. The Soviet space program went on to achieve a series of other space firsts in the late 1950s and early 1960s: first man in space, first woman, first three men, first space walk, first spacecraft to impact the moon, first to orbit the moon, first to impact Venus, and first craft to soft-land on the moon. However, the United States took a giant leap ahead in the space race in the late ’60s with the Apollo lunar-landing program, which successfully landed two Apollo 11 astronauts on the surface of the moon in July 1969.
William Pickering, James Van Allen, Wernher von Braun (from L to R) hold a model of Explorer 1, January 31, 1958
Who really won the space race, since there was never an official finish line? Soviets launched the first satellite (the Nazis actually launched the first rocket into space), put the first man into space, the first man into orbit, the first woman into space, the first multi-crewmembers into space, the fist space station, the first space dock, and the longest logged space mission. The first to soft or crash land a spacecraft into another astronomical body. But the U.S. was the first to send astronauts to the moon.
Very nice.
Von Braun = repurposed Nazi
“Vonce za rockheets go up, who cares vhere zay come down?”
“That’s not my department, says Werner von Braun”
I was in physics class and Dr Mara, who was working summers with Navy Vanguard program attempt to be first in space explained orbits to us.
I want on to have an AF career in satelllite launch operations.
I was in physics class and Dr Mara, who was working summers with Navy Vanguard program attempt to be first in space explained orbits to us.
I want on to have an AF career in satelllite launch operations.
1960’s NASA joke:
“Our Germans are better than their Germans”
60 years. And the day after my bride was born. And I remember it. I was 8. I had no idea about the Russians or the nuclear possibilities. But it made space, the place! I was hooked on space from that day forward.
The launch of Sputnik caused many rocket clubs to form across the country similar to the one in the movie October Sky.
I was a senior in high school at the time and me and 4 of my classmates formed such a club. We fired one of our rockets on the Fort Sill firing range that was tracked on radar to an altude of 5200 feet. We also had a private meeting with Werner Von Braun when he visited Oklahoma City. One of our members, similar to the movie, went on to work as an engineer for NASA for a while. He later moved to the oil & gas industry though and made his fortune by inventing a process used in fracing.
I read somewhere that Eisenhower wanted the Soviets to get into space first. That way they established the precedent of orbiting over enemy territory. He then used that for a spy satellite program. Our former General often gets passed over for the good job he actually did.
Yup,as were 99% of the USSR's rocket scientists of the 40s/50s/60s.
These Nazi scientists were gonna work for someone,voluntarily or not.The luckier ones wound up working for us...just as the luckier German POWs wound up in Allied hands.
Ike had his faults, but he was a good manager. Imagine trying to supervise all the outsize egos on his team from D-Day to VE Day.
“Soviets launched the first satellite, put the first man into space, the first man into orbit, the first woman into space, the first multi-crewmembers into space, the first space station, the first space dock, and the longest logged space mission.”
Is showing superiority of communism, da?
;^)
I was 6 years old. I remember my big brother and I would go outside and he’d find the small spec of light in the sky and we’d watch it for hours. It was scary.
Keep in mind that Sputnik orbited the earth roughly 15 times per day ... it tracked over eastern Canada on that particular orbit.
On its next orbit, it would have tracked about 25 degrees of longitude west, the next orbit another 25 degrees west, and eventually the next day, would have followed roughly the same track you saw that day.
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