...there was presumably furious activity at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, going unobserved. The world was mere hours away from entering the Space Age. Here's to Sergei Korolev and his first child, Sputnik-1.
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And now its name "graces" an on-line Russian propaganda outlet . . .
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I remember it well. Lots of discussions in school about whether we'd be able to see the spikes as it flew over.Comment
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The Soviet stamp designers appeared to think that one would
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You would have needed a good telescope for that! Wasn't the body about the size of a football?Comment
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More of an oversized medicine ball, but yeah
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I love the Mercator map in Janik's first link that makes it look as if Sputnik was somehow orbiting mostly in the southern hemisphereComment
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It was up and beeping away by this point on 4/10/57. TASS had already put their press release out, so the world was discovering what had just happened.
Interesting point from my link upthread; even though the 4th October 1957 is generally given as the date of the start of the Space Age, it was actually already the 5th October at he launch site when the rocket carrying Sputnik left the pad. Kazakhstan is a few hours ahead of Moscow and more ahead of European capitals and Washington. The date used is based on Moscow time.Comment
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Appropriate that I'm just discovering this thread now in the early minutes of the 5th. Nice one for posting that link Janik, the detailed breakdown of the precise launch and ascent events are a fascinating read on their own.Comment
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My grandfather was always proud that he was born before the aeroplane, so I can be proud that I was born before the Space Age...Comment
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It was a good day for the military-industrial complex in the US. It could claim (falsely) that the US was behind in defence and create a consensus for huge spending growth, which subsequently limited the chances of truly tackling poverty. It also gave a second win to McCarthyism; more red scares.Comment
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