What Did Sputnik Launch The Start Of?
The historic Sputnik launch on Oct. 4, 1957 marked the beginning of the space age, leading to the establishment of NASA as well as the U.S.Soviet space race. Sputnik 1 (/ sptnk, sptnk /, Russian: -1, Satellite 1), often referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite.
It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. The Soviet Union inaugurates the Space Age with its launch of Sputnik, the worlds first artificial satellite. Sputnik, any of a series of three artificial Earth satellites, the first of whose launch by the Soviet Union on , inaugurated the space age.
Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite launched, was a 83.6-kg (184-pound) capsule. The USSR rocketed to the lead in the Cold War's "Space Race" with the launch of Sputnik, a basketball-sized satellite that became the first manmade object to orbit the Earth. One month after the launching of Sputnik I, on , Sputnik II, a satellite weighing 1,120 pounds and containing the dog "Laika" was sent into orbit.
The world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, marking the start of the space race. This guide provides suggested research materials on this topic at the Library of Congress and online. On the evening of 4 October, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Soviet Kazakhstan, the R-7 rocket ignited and lifted off the launch pad.
Its engines burned steadily as it climbed through the atmosphere, and, minutes later, Sputnik 1 separated from the final stage and entered a low Earth orbit. Earth's Space Age began on , when the Soviet Union successfully launched the first human-made satellite into space, much to the surprise and disappointment of the United States... On , the Soviet Union launched the earths first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1.
The successful launch came as a shock to experts and citizens in the United States, who had hoped that the United States would accomplish this scientific advancement first.
