On October 4, 1957, the first satellite to ever orbit the Earth was launched by the USSR. Its impact on the world was immeasurable at the time and can still be felt today in many capacities.

The satellite, named Sputnik after the Russian word for satellite, consisted of a sphere about the size of a beach ball and two pairs of backward-facing antennae that were around 2.4 and 2.9 meters long. It also contained two transmitters, a fan, and a barometric switch. The satellite’s sphere shell was constructed with magnesium, titanium, and aluminum and was polished to an almost mirror-like finish to allow for light to be reflected from the sun and to further minimize atmospheric drag. If one wanted to see the satellite, they could use a telescope to make out the flash of it as it orbited the Earth due to its reflective nature.

Batteries, Anyone?

Oddly enough, Sputnik was powered by just three batteries, two of which accounted for over half of its total weight. These batteries were built to power the satellite’s “beep, beep, beep,” signal that broadcast to the world to illustrate that the USSR reached space first.

The signals Sputnik broadcasted could be heard around the world given they were transmitted at frequencies that even the most amateur of radio operators could pick up on. Although they did not fill the airwaves for too long (the batteries only lasted for 22 days to be exact), the message was clear: the Space Age had begun.

The Impact

The beginning of the Space Age pushed the US and the USSR to kick their efforts into high gear. Both countries had already pledged that they would launch satellites into orbit for the International Geophysical Year (IGY), which took place from July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958. The USSR however, wanted to launch a sophisticated scientific satellite at the time but ended up settling on Sputnik to be first into space.

On the other hand, the US pursued the launch of an exclusively civilian satellite system. The country’s first attempt was a failure, but its fallback plan of using the Army’s Ballistic Missile Agency’s Juno 1 rocket and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Explorer satellite was a success. This launched on February 1, 1958, and eventually came across the Van Allen Radiation belt, otherwise known as Earth’s magnetic field.

The Wrap

The USSR’s launch of Sputnik also proved to the rest of the world that the Soviets were capable of sending nuclear warheads to the US – making the Cold War seem a lot hotter. Thankfully, a hot war and the launch of nuclear warheads never came to fruition.

However, the reality of Sputnik reaching space changed the course of history forever. The world was then able to further improve upon satellites and other orbiting infrastructures and build more advanced societies that opened doorways for present-day navigation systems, weather forecasting, and advanced communications.

Go Deeper —> Sputnik and the Space Age – National Air and Space Museum