Sputnik 1 Satellite
The dawning of the human space age came with a resounding thunder on October 4, 1957 as what was then known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics launched Earth's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1. This was also the beginning of what was called the "space race," where all the major nation states of Earth were competing with each other to try and get an upper hand in the final frontier. The satellite itself proved no great technological feet, even for its day, as its sole purpous was to send off a simple signal once in orbit. But, the real triumph was that the Soviet Union had shown the feasibility of its intercontinental ballistic missiles. For the United States, the USSR's main competitor, this was a nightmarish prospect, as they knew this small satellite marked the beginning of a technological era in which the Soviet Union could easily lob nuclear weapons accross great distances to reach anywhere in the world.
The satellite itself consisted of a sphere with a diameter of 57.9 cm. It had a mass of 83.6 kg. It's orbital speed was 29,995 km/hr at a maximum height of 901.8 km above the Earth's surface. Sputnik had an orbital period of 96 minutes and stayed in orbit for three months. Sputnik 1 was equipped with a few scientific instruments which allowed it to measure the density ad temperature of the upper atmosphere along with measuring the concetration of electrons in Earth's ionosphere.
Click here to return to the index page.