Sputnik 1

The Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite aboard an R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile on October 4, 1957. Called Sputnik Zemlyi (“traveling companion of the world”), more commonly Sputnik 1, the satellite’s simple "beep beep" audio radio signals were picked up by scientists and ham radio operators around the world. The signals continued until the transmitter batteries were exhausted on October 26, 1957. The spacecraft’s orbit decayed during the following weeks, and it was destroyed during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere on January 4, 1958. The launch of Sputnik 1 was greeted with both celebration and alarm around the world. It had far-reaching technological and political consequences, especially in the United States. It ushered in the Space Race between the United States and Soviet Union in the late 1950s through the 1960s, culminating in the Apollo Moon landings. The Museum of Flight's Sputnik 1 was a contemporary technological duplicate, most probably manufactured for exhibition purposes by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. It was acquired by the Museum in 2001.

Sovfoto/UIG via Getty Sputnik 1 weighed 184 lbs. (83 kilograms) and was 23 inches (58 centimeters) wide. (This measure refers to the satellite's body; Sputnik 1 also featured two double-barreled antennas, the larger of which was 12.8 feet, or 3.9 meters, long.) So, the satellite was quite small compared to the spacecraft of today, such as Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Soviet space officials had wanted the nation's first satellite to be much bigger than a beach ball. The original plan called for lofting a nearly 3,000-lb. (1,400 kg) craft outfitted with a variety of scientific instruments. But development of this satellite, code-named "Object D," progressed more slowly than expected, and Soviet officials grew increasingly worried that the United States might beat them to space. So, they decided to precede the launch of Object D with a "simplest satellite," or "prosteishy sputnik" in Russian. Indeed, Sputnik 1 was also known as PS-1, Anatoly Zak noted at Sputnik 1 carried no scientific instruments. However, researchers did learn some things about Earth's atmosphere by studying the beep-beep-beep radio signals emitted by the satellite. The hulking Object D reached orbit as Sputnik 3 in May 1958, six months after Sputnik 2, which famously lofted a dog named Laika. The launch almost failed APA/Getty Sputnik 1 came perilously close to suffering the same fate as the United States' TV3 satellite, which was destroyed in a launch failure on Dec. 6, 1957. Sputnik 1 was lofted...

By the 1950s, scientists all over the world realized that it was becoming practical to launch an object into a circular path around the Earth. In mid-1955, the United States announced that it would launch the first satellite to commemorate the International Geophysical Year in 1957. The Soviet Union realized that 1957 was the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. Starting in early 1956, Soviet scientists had worked to design a large satellite with a mass of up to 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg). Codenamed “Object-D,” the craft would have become the world’s first space satellite, taking measurements of the upper atmosphere and the space environment. The complex Object D took longer to develop than expected. Karl's association with Space.com goes back to 2000, when he was hired to produce interactive Flash graphics. From 2010 to 2016, Karl worked as an infographics specialist across all editorial properties of Purch (formerly known as TechMediaNetwork). Before joining Space.com, Karl spent 11 years at the New York headquarters of The Associated Press, creating news graphics for use around the world in newspapers and on the web. He has a degree in graphic design from Louisiana State University and now works as a freelance graphic designer in New York City.

The Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, on October 4, 1957. The spacecraft, named Sputnik after the Russian word for “fellow traveler,” 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. READ MORE: 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 y...