On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the satellite that started the Space Race.
Sputnik 1was the first human-made object to orbit the Earth, and it set off a wave of fear and anxiety across the U.S. now known as the "Sputnik crisis." Sputnik was a metal sphere roughly 2 feet (58 cm) in diameter with four long radio antennas. These antennas transmitted little beeping pulses down toEarththat even amateur radio operators could hear.
Thesatellitespent 21 days in orbit before it burned up in Earth's atmosphere.
Why it mattered
The launch of Sputnik 1 changed the world for ever, kicking of a new Space Age and aSpace Raceof one upsmanship that ultimately led tothe creation of NASAand the landing of American astronauts on the moon on theApollo 11 missionin 1969.
The small satellite (it was about the size of a beach ball) took 98 minutes to orbit the Earth and weighed just 184 pounds (nearly 84 kg). But despite its relativity diminutive size, it was already larger than the 3.5-pound payload the United States hoped to launch with the first Vanguard rocket launch (which ultimately failed on Dec. 6, 1957).
Sputnik 1 surprised the world, and U.S. officials in particular, becuase of fears that Soviet rocket technology could be adapted into ballistic missiles to threaten other countries.
And Sputnik 1 wasn't alone. A month later, on Nov. 3, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, which sent thedog Laika into spaceas the first living creature in orbit. The first U.S. satellite,Explorer 1, would not launch until Jan. 31, 1958.
Want more space history? Check out ourfull On This Day In Space Story archiveand watch ourOn This Day In Space videos on YouTube.
On this day in space! Oct. 3, 1942: 1st successful launch of Germany's V-2 rocket
Contributing expert
Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.
With contributions from
- Tariq MalikEditor-in-Chief
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