The satellite's unanticipated success precipitated the American Sputnik crisis and triggered the Space Race, part of the Cold War. The launch was the beginning of a new era of political, military, technological and scientific developments. The name "Sputnik" is Russian for spouse/traveling companion or satellite when interpreted in an astronomical context. Tracking and studying Sputnik 1 from Earth provided scientists with valuable information. The density of the upper atmosphere could be deduced from its drag on the orbit, and the propagation of its radio signals gave data about the ionosphere. Sputnik 1 was launched during the International Geophysical Year from Site No.1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR (now known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome).
Introduction
Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 | Introduction
Site No.1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR Site No.1 at NIIP-5 From Site No.1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR . From Site No.1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR
who was the leader of the soviet union when sputnik was launched
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Nikita Khrushchev
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when was this satellite launched?
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4 October 1957
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which place was it launched from?
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Sputnik or Sputnik 1 is the first artificial satellite, launched October 1957. Sputnik may also refer to:
Sputnik (disambiguation) | Introduction
The satellite's unanticipated success precipitated the American Sputnik crisis and triggered the Space Race, part of the Cold War. The launch was the beginning of a new era of political, military, technological and scientific developments. The name "Sputnik" is Russian for spouse/traveling companion or satellite when interpreted in an astronomical context. Tracking and studying Sputnik 1 from Earth provided scientists with valuable information. The density of the upper atmosphere could be deduced from its drag on the orbit, and the propagation of its radio signals gave data about the ionosphere. Sputnik 1 was launched during the International Geophysical Year from Site No.1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR (now known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome).
Sputnik 1 | Introduction
The results indicated that the satellite was not punctured by a meteoroid. "Sputnik 1" was launched by an R-7 rocket. It burned up upon re-entry on 3 January 1958.
Space exploration | First outer space flights
Pressurized nitrogen in the satellite's false body provided the first opportunity for meteoroid detection. Sputnik 1 was launched during the International Geophysical Year from Site No.1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR (now at the Baikonur Cosmodrome). The satellite traveled at , taking 96.2 minutes to complete an orbit, and emitted radio signals at 20.005 and 40.002 MHz While Sputnik 1 was the first spacecraft to orbit the Earth, other man-made objects had previously reached an altitude of 100 km, which is the height required by the international organization Fédération Aéronautique Internationale to count as a spaceflight. This altitude is called the Kármán line.
Spacecraft | History
The control system of the Sputnik rocket was adjusted to an intended orbit of , with an orbital period of 101.5 min. The trajectory had been calculated earlier by Georgi Grechko, using the USSR Academy of Sciences' mainframe computer. The Sputnik rocket was launched on 4 October 1957 at 19:28:34 UTC (5 October at the launch site) from Site No.1 at NIIP-5. Telemetry indicated that the strap-ons separated 116 seconds into the flight and the core stage engine shutdown 295.4 seconds into the flight. At shutdown, the 7.5-tonne core stage (with PS-1 attached) had attained an altitude of above sea level, a velocity of , and a velocity vector inclination to the local horizon of 0 degrees 24 minutes.
Sputnik 1 | Launch and mission
A special reconnaissance commission selected Tyuratam for the construction of a rocket proving ground, the 5th Tyuratam range, usually referred to as "NIIP-5", or "GIK-5" in the post-Soviet time. The selection was approved on 12 February 1955 by the Council of Ministers of the USSR, but the site would not be completed until 1958. Actual work on the construction of the site began on 20 July by military building units. On 14 June 1956, Korolev decided to adapt the R-7 rocket to the 'Object D' (Sputnik 3), that would later be replaced by the much lighter 'Object PS' (Sputnik 1).
Sputnik 1 | Launch vehicle preparation and launch site selection
The first test launch of "Object D" was scheduled for 1957. Work on the satellite was to be divided among institutions as follows: Preliminary design work was completed in July 1956 and the scientific tasks to be carried out by the satellite were defined. These included measuring the density of the atmosphere and its ion composition, the solar wind, magnetic fields, and cosmic rays. This data would be valuable in the creation of future artificial satellites; a system of ground stations was to be developed to collect data transmitted by the satellite, observe the satellite's orbit, and transmit commands to the satellite.
Sputnik 1 | Satellite construction project
In July 1956, the Soviet Union's OKB-1 completed the preliminary design for the first Earth satellite, designated ISZ (Artificial Earth Satellite). ISZ was known to its designers as "Object D." Design of Object D had begun in January 1956 with intent to launch it during the International Geophysical Year. Object D was planned to be the first satellite launched by the Soviet Union but ended up being the third following delays due to problems developing the extensive scientific experiments and their telemetry system. The new R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile, also known by its GURVO designation 8K71, was ready to launch before Object D was finished.
Sputnik 3 | History
Sputnik 1 (; "Satellite-1", or "PS-1", Простейший Спутник-1 or "Prosteyshiy Sputnik-1", "Elementary Satellite 1") was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957. It orbited for three weeks before its batteries died and then orbited silently for two months before it fell back into the atmosphere. It was a polished metal sphere 58 cm (23 in) in diameter with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. Its radio signal was easily detectable by radio amateurs, and the 65° inclination and duration of its orbit made its flight path cover virtually the entire inhabited Earth.
Sputnik 1 | Introduction
Korolev anticipated that von Braun might launch a Jupiter-C with a satellite payload on or around October 4 or 5, in conjunction with the paper. He hastened the launch, moving it to October 4. The launch vehicle for PS-1 was a modified R-7 – vehicle 8K71PS number M1-PS – without much of the test equipment and radio gear that was present in the previous launches. It arrived at the Soviet missile base Tyura-Tam in September and was prepared for its mission at launch site number one. The first launch took place on Friday, October 4, 1957 at exactly 10:28:34 pm Moscow time, with the R-7 and the now named Sputnik 1 satellite lifting off the launch pad and placing the artificial "moon" into an orbit a few minutes later.
Space Race | First artificial satellite
Kosmos 1, also known as Sputnik 11, was launched on 16 March 1962 at 12:00:00 UTC. Orbital mass 285 kg. It was the first satellite of the Soviet Earth Satellite series. Employed radio instruments in order to study the structure of the ionosphere.
Kosmos (satellite) | Kosmos 1
Tyazhely Sputnik was launched at 01:18:03 UTC on 4 February 1961, atop a Molniya 8K78 carrier rocket flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. When the upper stage ignited, cavitation in the liquid oxygen flowing through the oxidiser pump caused the pump to fail, resulting in an engine failure eight-tenths of a second after ignition. It reentered the atmosphere over Siberia on 26 February 1961. According to the memoirs of Boris Chertok, "...A pendant shaped like a small globe with the continents etched on it was placed on the 1VA. Inside this small sphere was a medal depicting the Earth-to-Venus flight path.
Tyazhely Sputnik | Introduction
The first orbital flight of an artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched in October 1957, by the Soviet Union. In November, the second orbital flight took place. The Soviet Union launched the first animal to orbit the Earth, a dog, Laika, who died in orbit a few hours after launch. There were also 189 suborbital launches, many unsuccessful.
1957 in spaceflight | Introduction
The first launch of an R-7 rocket (8K71 No.5L) occurred on 15 May 1955. A fire began in the Blok D strap-on almost immediately at liftoff, but the booster continued flying until 98 seconds after launch when the strap-on broke away and the vehicle crashed some downrange. Three attempts to launch the third rocket (8K71 No.6) were made on 10–11 June, but an assembly defect prevented launch. The unsuccessful launch of the third R-7 rocket (8K71 No.7) took place on 12 July. An electrical short caused the vernier engines to put the missile into an uncontrolled roll which resulted in all of the strap-ons separating 33 seconds into the launch.
Sputnik 1 | Launch vehicle preparation and launch site selection
A German V-2 became the first spacecraft when it reached an altitude of 189 km in June 1944 in Peenemünde, Germany. Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit (LEO) by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments; while the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the Space Age. Apart from its value as a technological first, Sputnik 1 also helped to identify the upper atmospheric layer's density, through measuring the satellite's orbital changes. It also provided data on radio-signal distribution in the ionosphere.
Spacecraft | History
The Sputnik rocket was an uncrewed orbital carrier rocket designed by Sergei Korolev in the Soviet Union, derived from the R-7 Semyorka ICBM. On 4 October 1957, it was used to perform the world's first satellite launch, placing "Sputnik 1" into a low Earth orbit. Two versions of the Sputnik were built, the Sputnik-PS (GRAU index 8K71PS), which was used to launch "Sputnik 1" and later "Sputnik 2", and the Sputnik (8A91), which failed to launch a satellite in April 1958, and subsequently launched "3" on 15 May 1958. A later member of the R-7 family, the Polyot, used the same configuration as the Sputnik rocket, but was constructed from Voskhod components.
Sputnik (rocket) | Introduction
The satellite travelled at about , taking 96.2 minutes to complete each orbit. It transmitted on 20.005 and 40.002 MHz, which were monitored by radio operators throughout the world. The signals continued for 21 days until the transmitter batteries ran out on 26 October 1957. Sputnik burned up on 4 January 1958 while reentering Earth's atmosphere, after three months, 1440 completed orbits of the Earth, and a distance travelled of about .
Sputnik 1 | Introduction
October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union put the first satellite into orbit around the Earth. Sputnik one caused many in the U.S. scientific community to outburst on the lack of work put into a satellite program. One of the key contributors to these outbursts was a former German scientist, turned American through project paperclip, Wernher von Braun. Von Braun stated that if given the correct materials and the go ahead he would have an American satellite in orbit in a matter of months, and he did not disappoint. January 31, 1958, two months after the Soviets launch their second satellite, Sputnik II, into orbit Explorer I, the first American satellite, was launched into orbit.
The Princeton Three | Response to Sputnik
The payload nosecone detached and landed free of the exploding rocket, the small satellite's radio beacon still beeping. The satellite was too damaged for further use; it now resides in the National Air and Space Museum. The failure was widely and creatively derided in the press, being called a "kaputnik" in the "Daily Express", a "flopnik" in the "Daily Herald", a "puffnik" in the "Daily Mail" and a "stayputnik" in the "News Chronicle". After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, on November 3, 1957, then Secretary of Defense Neil H. McElroy directed the U.S. Army to use the Juno I and launch a satellite.
Project Vanguard | Sputnik and Explorer 1
The Sputnik 1 became the first artificial Earth satellite on 4 October 1957. The satellite transmitted a radio signal, but had no sensors otherwise. Studying the Sputnik 1 allowed scientists to calculate the drag from the upper atmosphere by measuring position and speed of the satellite. Sputnik 1 broadcast for 21 days until its batteries depleted on 4 October 1957, and the satellite finally fell from orbit on 4 January 1958.
History of spaceflight | Sputnik
Sputnik 3 (, Satellite 3) was a Soviet satellite launched on 15 May 1958 from Baikonur Cosmodrome by a modified R-7/SS-6 ICBM. The scientific satellite carried a large array of instruments for geophysical research of the upper atmosphere and near space. Sputnik 3 was the only Soviet satellite launched in 1958. Like its American counterpart, Vanguard 1, Sputnik 3 made it into orbit during the International Geophysical Year.
Sputnik 3 | Introduction
On 8 August, the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union approved the proposal to create an artificial satellite. On 30 August Vasily Ryabikov—the head of the State Commission on the R-7 rocket test launches—held a meeting where Korolev presented calculation data for a spaceflight trajectory to the Moon. They decided to develop a three-stage version of the R-7 rocket for satellite launches. On 30 January 1956 the Council of Ministers approved practical work on an artificial Earth-orbiting satellite. This satellite, named "Object D", was planned to be completed in 1957–58; it would have a mass of and would carry of scientific instruments.
Sputnik 1 | Satellite construction project
What most watchers actually saw was the much more visible 26-metre core stage of the R-7. Shortly after the launch of PS-1, Khrushchev pressed Korolev to launch another satellite to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution, on 7 November 1957. The launch of Sputnik 1 surprised the American public, and shattered the perception created by American propaganda of the United States as the technological superpower, and the Soviet Union as a backward country. Privately, however, the CIA and President Eisenhower were aware of progress being made by the Soviets on Sputnik from secret spy plane imagery. Together with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the Army Ballistic Missile Agency built Explorer 1, and launched it on 31 January 1958.
Sputnik 1 | Propaganda
Sputnik 41 (, ), also known as Sputnik Jr 2 and Radio Sputnik 18 (RS-18), was a Franco-Russian amateur radio satellite which was launched in 1998 to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Aéro-Club de France, and the forty-first anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite. A one-third scale model of Sputnik 1, Sputnik 41 was deployed from the Mir space station on 10 November 1998. Sputnik 41 was launched aboard Progress M-40 at 04:14 UTC on 25 October 1998, along with supplies for Mir and the Znamya-2.5 reflector experiment. A Soyuz-U carrier rocket placed the spacecraft into orbit, flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan: the same launch pad used by Sputnik 1.
Sputnik 41 | Introduction
The launch of "Sputnik 1" in October 1957 provided impetus for the first steps of space research in Bulgaria. Radio signals from the satellite were studied by the Ionospheric Radio Measurement and Control Centre, established the previous year. A station for optical tracking of "Sputnik 1" was set up in November 1957 on Plana mountain. Influenced by these events and publications of the International Astronautical Federation, engineer Georgi Asparuhov and Bulgarian Air Force captain Docho Haralampiev decided to introduce the wider public to the topic of space exploration. Haralampiev was also convinced that if a human were to fly in space next, the candidate had to be a pilot in excellent physical and mental condition.
Bulgarian cosmonaut program | Background
The rocket, however, was deemed suitable for satellite launches, and Korolev was able to convince the State Commission to allow the use of the next R-7 to launch PS-1, allowing the delay in the rocket's military exploitation to launch the PS-1 and PS-2 satellites.
Sputnik 1 | Launch vehicle preparation and launch site selection
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union took the lead in the Space Race with the launch of Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957. "Sputnik" was the first artificial satellite in orbit around the Earth, and the surprise of its successful launch, compounded by the resounding failure of Project Vanguard to launch an American satellite after two attempts, has been dubbed the "Sputnik crisis" and was the impetus for the beginning of the Space Race. Trying to reclaim lost ground, the United States embarked on a series of new projects and studies, which eventually included the launch of Explorer 1 and the creation of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NASA.
Project A119 | Background
Between 9 and 10 January 2015, the satellite reentered into the atmosphere.
MaSat-1 | Introduction
The Juno I rocket that carried the first US satellite Explorer 1 had been ready to launch in 1956, but the fact was classified and unknown to the public. The Army's PGM-19 Jupiter from which Juno was derived had been mothballed on the orders of Defense Secretary Charles Erwin Wilson amid interservice rivalry with the US Air Force's PGM-17 Thor.
Sputnik crisis | Background
Sputnik 3 was launched on May 15, 1958, and carried a large array of instruments for geophysical research and provided data on pressure and composition of the upper atmosphere, concentration of charged particles, photons in cosmic rays, heavy nuclei in cosmic rays, magnetic and electrostatic fields, and meteoric particles.
History of spaceflight | First artificial satellite
Sputnik 40 was launched, along with a backup spacecraft and the X-Mir inspection satellite, aboard Progress M-36 at 15:08 UTC on 5 October 1997. A Soyuz-U carrier rocket placed the spacecraft into orbit, flying from 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan: the same launch pad used by Sputnik 1. Progress M-36 docked to Mir on 8 October, and the satellites were transferred to the space station. At 04:05 UTC on 3 November, during an extra-vehicular activity, Sputnik 40 was deployed by cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Pavel Vinogradov.
Sputnik 40 | Launch
The Soviet launch of Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957, highlighted the technological achievements of the Soviets and sparked some worrying questions for the politicians and general public of the US. Although US military and civilian agencies were well aware of Soviet satellite plans, as they were publicly announced as part of the International Geophysical Year, US President Dwight Eisenhower's announcements that the event was unsurprising found little support among a US public that was still struggling with McCarthyism. Political opponents seized on the event, helped by Eisenhower's ineffectual response, as further proof that the US was "fiddling as Rome burned." Senator John F.
Missile gap | Background
Sputnik 40 (, ), also known as Sputnik Jr, PS-2 and Radio Sputnik 17 (RS-17), was a Franco-Russian amateur radio satellite which was launched in 1997 to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite. A one-third scale model of Sputnik 1, Sputnik 40 was deployed from the Mir space station on 3 November 1997. Built by students, the spacecraft was constructed at the Polytechnic Laboratory of Nalchik in Kabardino-Balkaria, whilst its transmitter was assembled by Jules Reydellet College in Réunion with technical support from AMSAT-France.
Sputnik 40 | Introduction
Korabl-Sputnik 1 ( meaning "Vessel Satellite 1"), also known as Sputnik 4 in the West, was the first test flight of the Soviet Vostok programme, and the first Vostok spacecraft. It was launched on May 15, 1960. Though Korabl-Sputnik 1 was unmanned, it was a precursor to the first human spaceflight, Vostok 1. Its mass was , of which was instrumentation. A bug in the guidance system had pointed the capsule in the wrong direction, so instead of dropping into the atmosphere the satellite moved into a higher orbit. The descent module re-entered the atmosphere on September 6, 1962. A 20 pound piece, still warm, was found in the middle of North 8th Street by two city police officers in Manitowoc, Wisconsin in the northern United States.
Korabl-Sputnik 1 | Introduction
The launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, started a Cold War technological and ideological competition with the United States known as the Space Race. The demonstration of American technological inferiority came as a profound shock to the American public. In response to the Sputnik crisis, although he did not see Sputnik as a grave threat, the President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, created a new civilian agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), to oversee an American space program. Confidence that the United States was catching up with the Soviet Union was shattered on April 12, 1961, when the Soviet Union launched Vostok 1, and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth.
NASA Astronaut Group 5 | Background
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite ever launched. On October 4, 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik 1 into orbit and received transmissions from it. Sputnik 1 was designed to be the forerunner for multiple satellite missions. The technology constantly underwent upgrades as the weight of satellites increased. The first notable failure occurred during Sputnik 4, an unmanned test of the Vostok capsule. A guidance system malfunction pointed the capsule in the wrong direction for the orbit-exiting engine burn, sending it instead into a higher orbit, which decayed approximately four months later. The success of Sputnik 1 was followed by the launch of 175 meteorological rockets in the next two years.
Soviet rocketry | Space age advances
The R-7 crashed about from the pad. The launch of the fourth rocket (8K71 No.8), on 21 August at 15:25 Moscow Time, was successful. The rocket's core boosted the dummy warhead to the target altitude and velocity, reentered the atmosphere, and broke apart at a height of after traveling . On 27 August, the TASS issued a statement on the successful launch of a long-distance multistage ICBM. The launch of the fifth R-7 rocket (8K71 No.9), on 7 September, was also successful, but the dummy was also destroyed on atmospheric re-entry, and hence needed a redesign to completely fulfill its military purpose.
Sputnik 1 | Launch vehicle preparation and launch site selection
Because of the limited time frame, observations were planned for only 7 to 10 days and orbit calculations were not expected to be extremely accurate.
Sputnik 1 | Satellite construction project
The satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida at 17:31:00 UTC on March 26, 1958 by the Juno I vehicle. The Juno I had its origins in the United States Army's Project Orbiter in 1954. The project was canceled in 1955 when the decision was made to proceed with Project Vanguard. Following the launch of the Soviet Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) was directed to proceed with the launching of a satellite using the Jupiter-C which had already been flight-tested in nose-cone re-entry tests for the Jupiter IRBM (intermediate-range ballistic missile).
Explorer 3 | Mission
The Sputnik 8A91 had more powerful 8D76 and 8D77 engines installed, increasing its payload capacity, and allowing it to launch much heavier satellites than "Sputnik 1" and "Sputnik 2". It was launched two times, in 1958. The first launch, on 27 April, failed due to vibrations that unexpectedly occurred during the flight along the longitudinal axis of the rocket. On 15 May, it successfully launched Sputnik 3.
Sputnik (rocket) | Sputnik 8A91
The Soviet Union agreed to transmit on frequencies that worked with the United States' existing infrastructure, but later announced the lower frequencies. Asserting that the launch "did not come as a surprise", the White House refused to comment on any military aspects. On 5 October the Naval Research Laboratory captured recordings of Sputnik 1 during four crossings over the United States. The USAF Cambridge Research Center collaborated with Bendix-Friez, Westinghouse Broadcasting, and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory to obtain a video of Sputnik's rocket body crossing the pre-dawn sky of Baltimore, broadcast on 12 October by WBZ-TV in Boston.
Sputnik 1 | Reaction
Korolev sent another proposal (attached with American newspaper articles about the US program) on August 5, and on August 8 the Soviet leadership approved Korolev's satellite project. The spirit of cold war competition was adequate to secure approval for the project. Sputnik 1 was designed and constructed in less than a month by the Tikhonravov group, with Korolev personally managing the assembly at a hectic pace. The satellite was a simple polished metal sphere no bigger than a beach ball, containing batteries that powered a transmitter using 4 external communication antennas. Sputnik 1 was successfully completed and launched into space on 4 October 1957 using a rocket that had successfully launched only once before.
Sergei Korolev | Space program
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. This shattered Americans confidence in their technological superiority, creating a wave of anxiety known as the Sputnik crisis. Among his responses, President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched the Space Race. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established on October 1, 1958, as a civilian agency to develop space technology. One of its first initiatives was Project Mercury, which aimed to launch a man into Earth orbit, evaluate his capabilities in space, and return him safely to the Earth. The first astronauts intake was drawn from the ranks of military test pilots.
Scott Carpenter | Mercury Seven
The launch took place from Site 200/39 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, at 22:05 UTC on 18 March 2015. The satellite was deployed into the planned geostationary transfer orbit.
Ekspress AM7 | Introduction
The launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, started a Cold War technological and ideological competition with the United States known as the Space Race. The demonstration of American technological inferiority came as a profound shock to the American public. In response to the Sputnik crisis, the U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower created a new civilian agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), to oversee an American space program. The Space Task Group (STG) at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, created an American spaceflight project called Project Mercury, which aimed to send a person to space and then into orbit.
NASA Astronaut Group 3 | Background
The satellite was successfully launched into space on 23 May 1981, at 22:42:00 UTC, by means of an Atlas SLV-3D Centaur vehicle from the CCAFS, LC-36B.
Intelsat V F-1 | Launch
On 4 October 1957 the USSR launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. This caused a wave of concern in the US, whose own Project Vanguard was caught flat-footed and then proved to repeatedly fail in spectacular fashion. This embarrassing turn of events led to a huge investment in US science and technology, including the formation of DARPA, NASA and a variety of intelligence efforts that would attempt to avoid being surprised in this fashion again. After a short period, the intelligence efforts centralized at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base as the Foreign Technology Division (FTD, now known as the National Air and Space Intelligence Center), run by the Air Force with input from the DIA and other organizations.
Automatic Language Translator | Mark II
PS-1 was not designed to be controlled; it could only be observed. Initial data at the launch site would be collected at six separate observatories and telegraphed to NII-4. Located back in Moscow (at Bolshevo), NII-4 was a scientific research arm of the Ministry of Defence that was dedicated to missile development. The six observatories were clustered around the launch site, with the closest situated from the launch pad. A second, nationwide observation complex was established to track the satellite after its separation from the rocket. Called the Command-Measurement Complex, it consisted of the coordination center in NII-4 and seven distant stations situated along the line of the satellite's ground track.
Sputnik 1 | Observation complex
A test flight was attempted on 5 September 2010, using the HEAT-1X rocket. The vehicle on board launch platform Sputnik, sometimes pushed by homebuilt submarine UC3 Nautilus and sometimes towed by M/V Flora, moved from Copenhagen on Tuesday 31 August 2010 to Nexø on Wednesday 1 September 2010. Launch was initiated Sunday 5 September 2010 from Home Guard vessel Hjortø at co-ordinates: The oxygen tank was filled, and the rocket was nearing launch.
HEAT 1X Tycho Brahe | 2010
The resulting shock to US pride and perceptions of national security, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial earth satellite, on October 4, 1957 (on the much larger R-7 rocket, developed as an ICBM), combined with the spectacular launch failure of the first complete Vanguard test launch December 6, 1957, is well known and recounted elsewhere. Thus the first US satellite, Explorer 1, was launched January 31, 1958 by a substantially larger Army Jupiter-C rocket, based on the Redstone missile, which had been developed by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) at Huntsville, Alabama under the leadership of Wernher von Braun.
Milton Rosen | Project Vanguard
The launch was planned for 20 April, but technical delays meant that several more days were needed. On 27 April, the 8A91 booster lifted from LC-1 and all appeared normal for over a minute into the launch. Around minutes, things went awry. The strap-on boosters broke away from the core and the entire launch vehicle tumbled to earth downrange. Ground crews monitoring radar tracking data from the booster noticed the trajectory angle change to negative numbers, followed by a complete loss of signal. The last data packet received indicated that the booster had flown only 227 kilometers at signal loss.
Sputnik 3 | Launch
If the temperature exceeded or fell below , another control thermal switch was activated, changing the duration of the radio signal pulses. Sputnik "1" was filled with dry nitrogen, pressurized to 1.3 atm. The satellite had a barometric switch, activated if the pressure inside the satellite fell below 130 kPa, which would have indicated failure of the pressure vessel or puncture by a meteor, and would have changed the duration of radio signal impulse.
Sputnik 1 | Design
ITUpSat-1 was launched on 23 September 2009 as a secondary payload atop a PSLV launcher of ISRO (launch provider: Antrix Corporation). The SPL (Single Picosatellite Launcher) system of Astrofein (Astro und Feinwerktechnik Adlershof GmbH, Berlin, Germany) is being used to deploy the four CubeSats. The launch service interface for all CubeSats is provided by ISIS (Innovative Solutions In Space BV) from Delft, Netherlands. The launch site is the SDSC‐SHAR (Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota) on the east coast of India. The primary payload on the flight was Oceansat-2 of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) with a launch mass of 960 kg.
ITUpSAT1 | Launch
Kosmos 8, also known as Sputnik 18, was launched on 18 August 1962 at 05:02:00 UTC from Kapustin Yar. Orbital mass 337 kg. It was a Soviet DS (Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik) type military satellite built in Ukraine for launch by Kosmos launch vehicles. It was used for military and scientific research and component proving tests.
Kosmos (satellite) | Kosmos 8
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. This damaged American confidence in its technological superiority, creating a wave of anxiety known as the Sputnik crisis. In response, President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched the Space Race. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established on October 1, 1958, as a civilian agency to develop space technology. One of its first initiatives was announced on December 17, 1958. This was Project Mercury, which aimed to launch a man into Earth orbit, return him safely to the Earth, and evaluate his capabilities in space. While Glenn was on duty at Patuxent and in Washington, he read everything he could find about space.
John Glenn | Selection
On 17 December 1954, chief Soviet rocket scientist Sergei Korolev proposed a developmental plan for an artificial satellite to the Minister of the Defence Industry, Dimitri Ustinov. Korolev forwarded a report by Mikhail Tikhonravov, with an overview of similar projects abroad. Tikhonravov had emphasized that the launch of an orbital satellite was an inevitable stage in the development of rocket technology. On 29 July 1955, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced through his press secretary that, during the International Geophysical Year (IGY), the United States would launch an artificial satellite. Four days later, Leonid I. Sedov, a leading Soviet physicist, announced that they too would launch an artificial satellite.
Sputnik 1 | Satellite construction project
INSAT-1C was launched from Guiana Space Centre in Kourou using Ariane 3 rocket on July 21, 1988. At launch, it had a mass of , and an expected operational lifespan of seven years. The satellite was positioned at 93.5° East longitude in geostationary orbit
INSAT-1C | Launch
Two days after the United States announced its intention to launch an artificial satellite, on July 31, 1956, the Soviet Union announced its intention to do the same. Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957, beating the United States and stunning people all over the world. The Soviet space program pioneered many aspects of space exploration:
Soviet space program | Notable firsts
The launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, started a Cold War technological and ideological competition with the United States known as the Space Race. The demonstration of American technological inferiority came as a profound shock to the American public. The Soviets followed up with Sputnik 2, which carried Laika, a Soviet space dog. American intelligence analysts assessed that the Soviets planned to put a man into orbit, which caused the United States Air Force (USAF) and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to strengthen their efforts to achieve that goal. The USAF launched a spaceflight project called Man in Space Soonest (MISS), for which it obtained approval from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and requested $133 million in funding.
Mercury Seven | Background
Kosmos 6, also known as Sputnik 16, was launched on 30 June 1962 at 16:04:00 UTC from Kapustin Yar. Orbital mass 355 kg. It was a Soviet DS (Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik) type military satellite built in Ukraine for launch by Kosmos launch vehicles. It was used for military and scientific research and component proving tests.
Kosmos (satellite) | Kosmos 6
By international agreement under the International Astronomical Union, the satellites and space probes were initially named with Greek letters, following the system for naming stars in constellations. The year of launch was included in the launch names, so Sputnik I was 1957 Alpha. The payload was called Alpha I, when known – in the case of Sputnik I, it wasn’t clear initially which was the payload, so the payload became Alpha II. Other pieces were also numbered, so the carrier rocket was usually Alpha II. The 24 Greek letters were soon used, so the next sequence started Alpha Alpha and so forth.
Project Space Track | Operations
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. This shattered American confidence in its technological superiority, creating a wave of anxiety known as the Sputnik crisis. Among his responses, President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched the Space Race. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established on October 1, 1958, as a civilian agency to develop space technology. One of its first initiatives was publicly announced on December 17, 1958. This was Project Mercury, which aimed to launch a man into Earth orbit, return him safely to the Earth, and evaluate his capabilities in space.
Alan Shepard | Mercury Seven
The descent module re-entered the atmosphere on September 6, 1962, while the equipment module re-entered on October 15, 1965. Giovanni Battista Judica Cordiglia, who set up his own amateur listening station at Torre Bert near Turin, is reported to have claimed that radio signals were received on November 28, 1960 which could have originated from this spacecraft; the spacecraft is known to have radioed prerecorded voice communications. It has led some to believe a conspiracy theory that the spacecraft may have been manned by the Lost Cosmonauts.
Korabl-Sputnik 1 | Introduction
Kosmos 3, also known as Sputnik 13, was launched on 24 April 1962 at 04:04:00 UTC. Orbital mass 330 kg. It belongs to the Soviet Earth Satellite series. It was used to study the upper layers of the atmosphere, Earth and the outer space. Data was relayed to Earth by a multichannel telemetry systems equipped with space-borne memory units.
Kosmos (satellite) | Kosmos 3
An annual commemoration, "Sputnikfest", is now held near the same date each year at the Rahr-West Museum, located within a few dozen feet of the impact site. This spacecraft, the first of a series of spacecraft used to investigate the means for manned space flight, contained scientific instruments, a television system, and a self-sustaining biological cabin with a dummy of a man. The spacecraft was designed to study the operation of the life support system and the stresses of flight. The spacecraft radioed both extensive telemetry and prerecorded voice communications. After four days of flight, the retro rocket was fired and the descent module was separated from its equipment module, but because of an incorrect attitude the spacecraft did not reenter the atmosphere as planned.
Korabl-Sputnik 1 | Introduction
Russia launches the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into orbit, beginning the space age. The US launches its first satellite, Explorer 1, four months later.
Timeline of astronomy | 1957
The launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, started a Cold War technological and ideological competition with the United States known as the Space Race. The demonstration of American technological inferiority came as a profound shock to the American public. In response to the Sputnik crisis, although he did not see Sputnik as a grave threat, the President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, created a new civilian agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), to oversee an American space program. In doing so, he sought to emphasise the scientific nature of the American space program and downplay its military aspects.
NASA Astronaut Group 4 | Background
Worried at the prospect of America launching a satellite before he did, Sergei Korolev substituted the relatively simple "Prosteyshiy Sputnik-1" meaning "Simple Satellite 1", or "PS-1", which was labeled Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Government, as the first satellite to be launched instead. Sputnik 2 (PS-2) was also ready and launched earlier than Object D.
Sputnik 3 | History
The Soviets provided details of Sputnik 1 before the launch, but few outside the Soviet Union noticed. After reviewing information publicly available before the launch, the science writer Willy Ley wrote in 1958: Organized through the citizen science project Operation Moonwatch, teams of visual observers at 150 stations in the United States and other countries were alerted during the night to watch for the satellite at dawn and during the evening twilight as it passed overhead. The USSR requested amateur and professional radio operators to tape record the signal being transmitted from the satellite. News reports at the time pointed out that "anyone possessing a short wave receiver can hear the new Russian earth satellite as it hurtles over this area of the globe." Directions, provided by the American Radio Relay League, were to "Tune in 20 megacycles sharply, by the time signals, given on that frequency.
Sputnik 1 | Reaction
The satellite was successfully launched into space on 19 May 1982 at 22:26:00 UTC, by means of an Atlas SLV-3D Centaur-D1AR vehicle from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, United States. It had a launch mass of 1928 kg.
Intelsat V F-6 | Launch
Project Vanguard was a program managed by the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), which intended to launch the first artificial satellite into Earth orbit using a Vanguard rocket as the launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral Missile Annex, Florida. In response to the launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, the U.S. restarted the Explorers Program, which had been proposed earlier by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA). Privately, however, the CIA and President Dwight D. Eisenhower were aware of progress being made by the Soviets on Sputnik from secret spy plane imagery. Together with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), ABMA built Explorer 1 and launched it on January 31, 1958.
Project Vanguard | Introduction
The launch spurred a series of US initiatives ranging from defense to education. Increased emphasis was placed on the US Navy's Project Vanguard to launch an American satellite into orbit. There was a renewed interest in the existing Explorer program, which launched the first American satellite into orbit on January 31, 1958. In February 1958, Eisenhower authorized formation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, which was later renamed to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), within the Department of Defense (DoD) to develop emerging technologies for the US military. On July 29, 1958, he signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, the creation of NASA.
Sputnik crisis | United States
BILSAT-1 was launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 132/1, Arkhangelsk Oblast in Russia by a Kosmos-3M space launch vehicle on September 27, 2003 at 06:12 UTC in a multiple-satellite payload launch along with six other satellites, namely Mozhayets-4 and Larets of Russia, NigeriaSat-1 of Nigeria, UK-DMC from the United Kingdom, South Korean STSAT-1 and Germany's Rubin 4-DS. It was placed in a polar, circular, sun-synchronous geocentric orbit at an altitude of with orbital parameters as period 98.5 min, apogee , perigee and inclination 98.2°.
BILSAT-1 | Launch
Even before the launch of Sputnik 1, there were various types of launch vehicle designs. The launch vehicle designs described below are either canceled or never left the drawing board.
List of launch vehicle designs | Introduction
Thus the V-2 program started the space race, the V-2 could not orbit, but could reach a height of 88 km (55 mi) on long range trajectory and up to 206 km (128 mi) if launched vertically. Due to later problems with Vanguard it was not the first rocket to put into orbit an unmanned satellite. The first small-lift launch vehicle was the Sputnik rocket, it put into orbit an unmanned orbital carrier rocket designed by Sergei Korolev in the Soviet Union, derived from the R-7 Semyorka ICBM. On 4 October 1957, the Sputnik rocket was used to perform the world's first satellite launch, placing Sputnik 1 satellite into a low Earth orbit.
Vanguard TV1 | Background
Kosmos 2, also known as Sputnik 12, was launched on 6 April 1962 at 17:16:00 UTC. Orbital mass 285 kg. It was the second satellite of the Soviet Earth Satellite series. Employed radio instruments in order to study the structure of the ionosphere.
Kosmos (satellite) | Kosmos 2
The satellite was successfully launched into space on May 22, 1975, by means of an Atlas SLV-3D Centaur-D vehicle from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, United States. It had a launch mass of 3,117 lb.
Intelsat IV F-1 | Release
The Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite, on 4 October 1957, came as a tremendous shock to the American public, who had trusted that American technological superiority ensured their invulnerability. Now, suddenly, there was incontrovertible proof that, in some areas at least, the Soviet Union was actually ahead. In the widespread calls for action in response to the Sputnik crisis, officials in the United States and Britain seized an opportunity to mend the relationship with Britain that had been damaged by the Suez Crisis. Macmillan wrote to Eisenhower on 10 October urging that the two countries pool their resources to meet the challenge.
Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom | Renewed American partnership
In 1957, the Soviet Union and the United States had set a goal of placing satellites into Earth orbit as part of a worldwide scientific celebration known as the International Geophysical Year. In this endeavor the United States effort was called Project Vanguard. The Soviet Union successfully launched the Sputnik satellite on October 4, 1957, an event followed soon after by a very public and disastrous explosion of a Vanguard rocket. Political pressure forced U.S. politicians to allow a former German rocket scientist, Wernher von Braun, to prepare his Jupiter C rocket for an orbital flight. In the renamed launcher (now called Juno I) the propellant succeeded in launching America's first satellite, Explorer I, into orbit on January 31, 1958.
Mary Sherman Morgan | Space race era
The satellite was launched on 29 September 2012 at 4:12 UTC from pad 603 at launch complex 43 at Jiuquan Launch Centre in China. It was launched by a Long March 2D rocket which put the satellite into low earth orbit. It was given the international designator 2012-052A and the United States Space Command assigned it the Satellite Catalog Number 38782.
VRSS-1 | Launch
The satellite was initially placed in a orbit in 2006. On 10 September 2010, its orbit was circularised to , with an inclination of 69.9 degrees.
Resurs-DK No.1 | Major orbit change
Kosmos 5, also known as Sputnik 15, was launched on 28 May 1962 at 03:07:00 UTC. Orbital mass 280 kg. It was used to study the upper layers of the atmosphere, Earth and the outer space. Data was relayed to Earth by a multichannel telemetry systems equipped with space-borne memory units.
Kosmos (satellite) | Kosmos 5
Lawrence River. In addition, landing craft, tankers and submarines became the local contributions to U.S. efforts in World War II. On September 5, 1962, a piece of the seven-ton Sputnik 4 crashed on North 8th Street. Sputnik 4 was a USSR satellite, part of the Sputnik program and a test-flight of the Vostok spacecraft that would be used for the first human spaceflight. It was launched on May 15, 1960. A bug in the guidance system had pointed the capsule in the wrong direction, so instead of dropping into the atmosphere the satellite moved into a higher orbit. It re-entered the atmosphere on or about September 5, 1962.
Manitowoc, Wisconsin | History
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United States was engaged in the Cold War, a geopolitical rivalry with the Soviet Union. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. This surprise success fired fears and imaginations around the world. It demonstrated that the Soviet Union had the capability to deliver nuclear weapons over intercontinental distances, and challenged American claims of military, economic and technological superiority. This precipitated the Sputnik crisis, and triggered the Space Race. President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded to the Sputnik challenge by creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and initiating Project Mercury, which aimed to launch a man into Earth orbit.
Apollo 11 | Background
The satellite was successfully launched into space on September 26, 1975, by means of an Atlas-Centaur vehicle from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, United States. It had a launch mass of 1,515 kg.
Intelsat IVA F-1 | History
The launch occurred at 23:38 UTC on 11 March 2011. Following liftoff the rocket flew east, placing the satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. By 23:43 UTC, official updates on the status of the launch had been discontinued.
USA-227 | Introduction
The launch of Sputnik also planted the seeds for the development of modern satellite navigation. Two American physicists, William Guier and George Weiffenbach, at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) decided to monitor Sputnik's radio transmissions and within hours realized that, because of the Doppler effect, they could pinpoint where the satellite was along its orbit. The Director of the APL gave them access to their UNIVAC to do the heavy calculations required. Early the next year, Frank McClure, the deputy director of the APL, asked Guier and Weiffenbach to investigate the inverse problem: pinpointing the user's location, given the satellite's.
Sputnik 1 | Satellite navigation
These signals were detected at the IP-1 station by Junior Engineer-Lieutenant V.G. Borisov, where reception of Sputnik 1's "beep-beep-beep" tones confirmed the satellite's successful deployment. Reception lasted for two minutes, until PS-1 fell below the horizon. The Tral telemetry system on the R-7 core stage continued to transmit and was detected on its second orbit.
Sputnik 1 | Launch and mission
The satellite was successfully launched into space on 6 December 1980, at 23:31:00 UTC, by means of an Atlas SLV-3D Centaur-D1AR vehicle from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, United States.
Intelsat V F-2 | Launch
After the success of Sputnik 1 in October 1957, Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, wanted a spacecraft launched on 7 November 1957, the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution. Construction had already started on a more sophisticated satellite, but it would not be ready until December; this satellite would later become Sputnik 3. Meeting the November deadline meant building a new craft. Khrushchev specifically wanted his engineers to deliver a "space spectacular", a mission that would repeat the triumph of Sputnik 1, stunning the world with Soviet prowess. Planners settled on an orbital flight with a dog. Soviet rocket engineers had long intended a canine orbit before attempting human spaceflight; since 1951, they had lofted twelve dogs into sub-orbital space on ballistic flights, working gradually toward an orbital mission set for some time in 1958.
Laika | Sputnik 2
The Sputnik crisis was a period of public fear and anxiety in Western nations about the perceived technological gap between the United States and Soviet Union caused by the Soviets' launch of "Sputnik 1", the world's first artificial satellite. The crisis was a significant event in the Cold War that triggered the creation of NASA and the Space Race between the two superpowers. The satellite was launched on October 4, 1957, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Sputnik crisis | Introduction
The 1,432 kg satellite was launched on 4 April 2014 at 11:44 UTC (17:14 IST) aboard the PSLV-C24 rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
IRNSS-1B | Launch
Object D dwarfed the proposed US satellites, having a weight of , of which would be composed of scientific instruments that would photograph the Earth, take readings on radiation levels, and check on the planet's magnetic field. However, things were not going along well with the design and manufacturing of the satellite, so in February 1957, Korolev sought and received permission from the Council of Ministers to build a "Prosteishy Sputnik" (PS-1), or simple satellite. The Council also decreed that Object D be postponed until April 1958. The new "Sputnik" was a metallic sphere that would be a much lighter craft, weighing and having a diameter.
Space Race | First artificial satellite
Sputnik 2 (, , "Satellite 2"), or Prosteyshiy Sputnik 2 (PS-2, , "Simplest Satellite 2") was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, on 3 November 1957, and the first to carry a living animal, a Soviet space dog named Laika. Laika died on the fourth orbit due to overheating caused by an air conditioning malfunction. Launched by the U.S.S.R., Sputnik 2 was a 4 meters (13 feet) high cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 meters (6.6 feet) that weighed around 500 kg, though it was not designed to separate from the rocket core that brought it to orbit, bringing the total mass in orbit to 7.79 tonnes.
Sputnik 2 | Introduction
Originally Sloshsat-FLEVO was to be launched from the Space Shuttle and use the shuttle as a data relay, but after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster the satellite was modified to be launched on board the Ariane-5 qualification flight. The satellite was launched from the Guiana Space Centre launch site at Kourou, French Guiana on 12 February 2005.
Sloshsat-FLEVO | Launch
NASA was contracted to launch INSAT-1A using a Delta 3910 rocket with a PAM-D upper stage. The launch occurred at 06:47 UTC on 10 April 1982, from Launch Complex 17A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The satellite was successfully inserted into geosynchronous transfer orbit, from which it raised itself into geostationary orbit. It received the International Designator 1982-031A and Satellite Catalog Number 13129.
INSAT-1A | Introduction
Sputnik 3 was launched by a modified R-7 Semyorka missile developed for satellite launches, the Sputnik 8A91. The 8A91 was a transitional design between the initial 8K71 test model R-7 and the operational 8K74, which had yet to fly. Improvements in manufacturing processes were used to reduce the gauge of the slosh baffles in the propellant tanks and cut down on weight. The engines were slightly more powerful and the changes in mass resulted in modifications to the flight plan--the core stage would be throttled down and the strap-ons throttled up 25% prior to their jettison. An interstage section replaced the radio equipment bay at the top of the booster, and the telemetry package was also moved here.
Sputnik 3 | Launch
After the launch of Sputnik, a poll conducted and published by the University of Michigan showed that 26% of Americans surveyed thought that Russian sciences and engineering were superior to that of the United States. (A year later, however, that figure had dropped to 10% as the U.S. began launching its own satellites into space.) One consequence of the Sputnik shock was the perception of a "missile gap". This became a dominant issue in the 1960 Presidential campaign.
Sputnik 1 | Legacy
The Soviets launch of Sputnik I and Sputnik II showed that America was falling behind in fall facets of scientific research only adding to the need of a national laboratory set aside for scientific research according to the issues present.
The Princeton Three | Response to Sputnik
Sputnik (Спутник, Russian for "satellite") is a spacecraft launched under the Soviet space program. "Sputnik 1", "Sputnik 2" and "Sputnik 3" were the official Soviet names of those objects, while the remaining designations in the series ("Sputnik 4" and so on) were not official names, but were names applied in the West, to objects whose original Soviet names may not have been known at the time.
List of spacecraft called Sputnik | Introduction