On Wednesday, the world will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite ever to orbit the Earth. The Soviet satellite, which launched October 4, 1957, heralded the beginning of the Space Age, which has allowed humans to leave Earth for the first time in the history of our species.
Sputnik (the satellite, not the news outlet) was launched into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It was loaded on the back of an R-7 Semyorka, the first ever intercontinental ballistic missile. The launch very nearly failed after the R-7 suffered booster malfunction. Flight Control managed to correct the rocket's course and successfully complete the launch.
The satellite locked into an elliptical Low Earth Orbit, ranging from 134 to 583 miles from the planet's surface. Of course, by modern standards, little Sputnik 1 wasn't very impressive. A beach ball-sized metallic sphere with four thin legs, it weighed 183 pounds and couldn't really do anything except make a beeping noise (which could not be heard in the vacuum of space, of course). However, Sputnik 1 also contained a radio transmitter so amateur radio operators could track it — which incidentally gathered information about the electron density of Earth's ionosphere.
Sputnik also had a reflective surface which made it visible to the naked eye from Earth's surface at certain times of day. After 22 days (eight more than predicted), Sputnik's batteries gave out and the radio signal stopped. On January 8, Sputnik 1 burned up in Earth's atmosphere, traveling 43 million miles across 1,440 orbits.
Happy Birthday, Brave Traveler: Sputnik 1 Celebrates 60th Anniversary
