"The United States now sleeps under a Soviet moon." Sputnik-1

"Glory to the Soviet Science!" 1957 Author unknown

That was Nikita Khrushchyov - the leader of the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin. 50 years ago on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite into geocentric orbit of the Earth, thus ending the Sputnik Race between USSR and the USA.

This especially hurt the USA - during the Cold War Soviet science was always portrayed as inferior and undeveloped, and the launch proved quite the opposite. Also this was a direct threat to the U.S. security as there was a soviet object flying over the American territory beyond our reach. But this was a purely physiological threat as Sputnik-1 carried only radio transmitters on board. It was a 585mm diameter sphere, made of 2mm polished aluminum alloy, so that the glitter could be observed from the ground. It had four antennas between 2.4 and 2.9 meters, which were transmitting recurring radio-signal. Sputnik was about the size of a basketball. It weighed only 83 kg (183 pounds). The frequency was deliberately chosen so that radio hams around the world could pick it up – resulting in stronger reaction. Each of its elliptical orbits around the Earth took about 96 minutes

Listen to the signal record here: http://www.jamsat.or.jp/sounds/sputnik.10s.wav

The picture above is of Laika, the dog that was sent up in Sputnik-II, a month later. The satellite was never meant to be retrieveable, so Laika died about 7 hours or so into the mission - heat exhaustion and stress. The Russian people were never told of this until 1998, when one of the scientists on the mission stated that it was a terrible thing to do to the dog. Laika became a hero in Soviet Russia. I'm sure Laika was really happy about that.

Here's a picture for the ages. That's me on the right and my brother, Jason on the floor. Apollo 10 was flown in May 1969. This is at Highland View in Greendale, WI where I attended 1st grade. First grade for me was in 1970 when I was 6. So the Apollo model had to be left over from the class before me. See Charlie Brown and Snoopy at the top left - mascots for the entire Apollo mission. 1970 was the year of Apollo 13.