On the 50th anniversary of the launch of the world's first man-made orbiting satellite, Bart Connollytraces how it sparked the Space Race
Today sees the 50th anniversary of the launch of the world's first man-made orbiting satellite, Sputnik 1. Its launch astounded the world and triggered the space race during the coldest days of the Cold War.
Sputnik 1, literally "Co-traveller-1" was the first of five launched from what is now Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Spunik was ostensibly a "science mission". It performed three scientific studies that focused on atmospheric density, radio signals in the ionosphere, and meteoroid detection.
WEIGHING 83.5KG, the 59cm aluminium sphere had four whip-like radio antennas. The 20 and 40 MHz radio signals (chosen by the Russians) could be detected all over the planet by amateur radio.
Its booster rocket also reached orbit, and this was visible from the Earth. On October 5th their Naval Research Laboratory announced it had recorded four crossings over the United States. Sputnik's batteries ran out on October 26th.
Sergei Korolev, a Ukrainian, had been appointed chief designer in 1954. He had studied under the aircraft designer Tupolev in Moscow. The two men also met later under radically different circumstances when they were both sent to the Gulags in one of Stalin's purges. After seven years into a 10-year sentence, in 1945, he was released and appointed an army colonel. Russia had realised his worth.
Korolev was asked by Stalin to build a replica of the German A4 rocket. But he argued he could develop a better design. Stalin was suspicious of innovation. He wanted something that worked. Korolev produced a copy within two years and it worked. By 1957, he had developed the R-7 booster and the Sputnik launch quickly followed.
Political consequences and motivations prevailed. The R7 launcher that lifted Sputnik into orbit was actually designed for nuclear warheads.
The launch politically upstaged President Eisenhower who earlier, on July 29th, 1955, announced that the US would launch a satellite during the International Geophysical Year.
Though German V2 rockets had technically reached space (100km), communist Russia was the first to get an object into orbit round the Earth. And it continued its string of space firsts.
USSR followed with a living thing - Laika the dog - on November 3rd. The engineering work for this payload was all done in less than four weeks.
Eventually the Soviet Union had the first probe on the moon (September 14th, 1959); the first human in space: Uri Gagarin (April 12th, 1961); and first spacewalk: Alexei Leonov (March 18th, 1965).
Throughout the Cold War, the USSR appeared to many in the West as the greatest threat to civilisation as they knew it. Until communism began to collapse it had shown superiority in military technology and as well as in cultural achievement. Many achievements could be listed - from gymnastics, to dancing and soccer playing - but it was this satellite which set the scene in what became the Space Race.
For the public, Sputnik symbolised a threat to American security.
Educators, scientists, and mathematicians broadened and accelerated educational reform. The public supported the effort.
POLICY MAKERS INCREASED funding for the space programme through the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. Eventually, on July 20th 1969, in the Apollo 11 mission, the US landed Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong on the moon, while Michael Collins orbited above.
It was the first time humans had travelled the quarter of a million miles, landed on the lunar surface and returned to Earth. This was no mean achievement considering that since the Apollo missions, no human has travelled more than about 200 miles from the surface of the Earth.
Sputnik re-entered the atmosphere and burnt up on on about January 4th, 1958 after 1,440 orbits. But parts of it may still survive. Some time afterwards, several pieces of plastic tubing matching the Sputnik 1 diagrams were found in a back yard in Los Angeles. The US air force took the parts but returned them when asked for a promised reward. They are currently on exhibit in The Beatnik Museum in San Francisco.
A replica, built by French and Russian teenagers and hand-launched from Mir on November 3rd, 1997, died after two months in orbit.