4 October: Sputnik

On this date in 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, into orbit, kicking off the Space Age.

1. The word “Sputnik” translates as "companion" or "fellow traveller".
2. The satellite weighed 184lb and was about the size of a basketball. Or 58cm/23in diameter if you prefer exact measures.
3. It was launched from present day Kazakhstan, (then part of the Soviet Union) at a site now known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome, by a converted Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM).
4. Sputnik orbited the Earth every 96 minutes at a maximum height of 584 miles.
5. It had a simple radio transmitter which sent beeps back to Earth for 23 days, after which its battery died. Even amateur radio enthusiasts could pick up its signal.
6. It was a one watt transmitter. That's less wattage than a light bulb. It also contained a fan which would start up if the temperature inside exceeded 36 °C (97 °F).
7. It almost didn't get off the ground at all, because a component in the rocket didn't reach full power at first, only doing so one second before an automatic shutdown of the whole mission would have occurred. It also had a faulty fuel regulator which meant the rocket used more fuel than it should have.
8. The Soviets had kept fairly quiet about what they were planning to do, possibly because they didn't want adverse publicity if the thing didn't work. The information was out there, but few people actually looked at it, and so the West was taken somewhat by surprise when it happened. The political atmosphere at the time meant there was concern about what the Soviets might do with this technology mixed with wonder at what mankind had managed to achieve. Perhaps people were right to worry, since the rocket used to launch it had initially been developed as a weapon.
9. As a result of Sputnik, the pressure was on for the Americans to catch up in the space race. They responded by launching their own satellite, Explorer, which had a range of scientific instruments on board and which discovered the Van Allen radiation belts around the planet. Another direct result of Sputnik was the creation of NASA in July 1958.
10. In January 1958, it re-entered the earth's atmosphere and burned up.

See also: Telstar 

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