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.
Introduction
Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 | Introduction
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Nikita Khrushchev
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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 or Sputnik 1 is the first artificial satellite, launched October 1957. Sputnik may also refer to:
Sputnik (disambiguation) | Introduction
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 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
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 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
The First Secretary hoped that public perception that the Soviets were ahead would put psychological pressure on the West resulting in political concessions. The Soviet space program, which Khrushchev firmly supported, appeared to confirm his claims when the Soviets launched Sputnik 1 into orbit, a launch many westerners, including U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon, were convinced was a hoax. When it became clear that the launch was real, and Sputnik 1 was in orbit, Western governments concluded that the Soviet ICBM program was further along than it actually was. Khrushchev added to this misapprehension by stating in an October 1957 interview that the USSR had all the rockets, of whatever capacity, that it needed.
Nikita Khrushchev | Early relations and U.S. visit (1957–1960)
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 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 successful launch of Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957 gave credence to Soviet claims about the progress of its intercontinental ballistic missile program, and began the Sputnik crisis in the United States. The U-2 intelligence caused Eisenhower to state in a press conference on 9 October that the launch did "not raise my apprehensions, not one iota", but he refused to disclose the U-2's existence as he believed that the Soviets would demand the end of the flights. In December 1958 Khrushchev boasted that a Soviet missile could deliver a 5-megaton warhead . Although the Soviets' SS-6 Sapwood missile program was actually stalled due to technical failures, subsequent boasts—and U.S.
Lockheed U-2 | The "missile gap"
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 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 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
It was the very first satellite of its kind. International response to the accomplishment was electrifying, and political ramifications continued for decades. Nikita Khrushchev — initially bored with the idea of another "Korolev rocket launch" — was pleased with this success after the wide recognition, and encouraged launch of a more sophisticated satellite less than a month later, in time for the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution on 3 November.
Sergei Korolev | Space program
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
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 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
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
At the end of the 1950s, with the help of engineers and technologies captured and imported from defeated Nazi Germany, the Soviets constructed the first satellite - Sputnik 1 and thus overtook the United States. This was followed by other successful satellites and experimental dogs were sent. On April 12, 1961, the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, was sent to the space. He once flew around the Earth and successfully landed in the Kazakh steppe. At that time, the first plans for space shuttles and orbital stations were drawn up in Soviet design offices, but in the end personal disputes between designers and management prevented this.
Soviet Union | Space program
The Soviet Union became the world's first spacefaring state by launching its first satellite, Sputnik 1, on 4 October 1957.
Space policy | Soviet Union
In 1955, in separate announcements four days apart, both the United States and the Soviet Union publicly announced that they would launch artificial Earth satellites within the next few years. The July 29, announcement from the White House stated that the U.S. would launch "small Earth circling satellites" between July 1, 1957, and December 31, 1958, as part of the American contribution to the International Geophysical Year. Americans were astonished when October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched its "Sputnik 1" satellite into orbit Three months later, a nationally televised test of the American Vanguard TV3 missile failed in an embarrassing fashion; the missile was facetiously referred to as "Flopnik" and "Stay-putnik." To many, the success of the Soviet satellite program suggested that the Soviet Union had made a substantial leap forward in technology that posed a serious threat to U.S.
Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower | Space program and education
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
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
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
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
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
Before work was completed, however, the Soviet Union launched a second satellite, Sputnik 2, on 3 November 1957. Meanwhile, the televised failure of "Vanguard TV3" on 6 December 1957 deepened American dismay over the country's position in the Space Race. The Americans took a more aggressive stance in the emerging space race, resulting in an emphasis on science and technological research, and reforms in many areas from the military to education systems. The federal government began investing in science, engineering, and mathematics at all levels of education. An advanced research group was assembled for military purposes. These research groups developed weapons such as ICBMs and missile defense systems, as well as spy satellites for the U.S.
Sputnik 1 | Propaganda
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
In 1962, the design process of the UR-500 super-heavy ICBM was started. This later evolved into the Proton space launch vehicle in 1964. The first Proton rocket was launched on 16 July 1965.
Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center | Soviet era
By 1957, the Atlas missile project was proceeding well, and the need for a nuclear upper stage had all but disappeared. On 2 October 1957, the AEC proposed cutting its budget. Two days later, 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 contested cherished American notions of military, economic and technological superiority. This precipitated the Sputnik crisis, and triggered the Space Race. President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded to by creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which absorbed the NACA.
NERVA | Transfer to NASA
During the same period, plans were being made by the US to test the presence of the expected charged layer directly using the Explorer 1 satellite as part of the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Before Explorer launched, the Soviets surprised everyone by launching Sputnik 1 in October 1957. This event caused near-panic in US defense circles, where many concluded the Soviets had achieved an insurmountable scientific lead. Among those worried about the Soviet advances was Christofilos, who published his idea in an internal memo that same month. When Explorer launched in January 1958, it confirmed the existence of what became known as the Van Allen radiation belts.
Christofilos effect | Sputnik and Explorer
Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik (; ), also known as DS, was a series of satellites launched by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1982. DS satellites were used for a number of missions, including technological and scientific research, and radar tracking targets for anti-satellite weapons and anti-ballistic missiles. 185 were launched, using dedicated Kosmos rockets.· The first DS satellite, DS-1 No.1, was launched on the maiden flight of the Kosmos-2I 63S1 rocket on 27 October 1961. It failed to reach orbit after an acceleration integrator malfunctioned. A second launch attempt, with DS-1 No.2, failed due to a second stage malfunction. The third satellite, as DS-2, successfully reached orbit and was subsequently assigned the designation Kosmos 1, becoming the first satellite to be designated under the Kosmos system.
Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik | Introduction
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
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 Jupiter-C design used for the launch had already been flight-tested in nose cone reentry tests for the Jupiter IRBM, and was modified into Juno I. Working closely together, ABMA and JPL completed the job of modifying the Jupiter-C and building Explorer 1 in 84 days. However, before work was completed, the Soviet Union launched a second satellite, Sputnik 2, on November 3, 1957. The U.S. Navy's attempt to put the first U.S. satellite into orbit failed with the launch of the Vanguard TV3 on December 6, 1957.
Explorer 1 | Background
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
From 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1. In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch an artificial satellite for the International Geophysical Year (1957–58). An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard. After the Soviet space program's launch of the world's first artificial satellite ("Sputnik 1") on October 4, 1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. The U.S. Congress, alarmed by the perceived threat to national security and technological leadership (known as the "Sputnik crisis"), urged immediate and swift action; President Dwight D.
NASA | Creation
In the mid-1950s a series of events challenged the balance of power between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1955 the Soviet Union, for the first time, launched a ballistic missile from a submarine. Two years later, on 4 October 1957, the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched into orbit by the USSR. The U.S. started its own submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) programme under then Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Arleigh Burke, with the mission to launch a Polaris missile from a submarine. The initial goal was to have this operational by 1965, but Soviet activities resulted in an accelerated schedule to deliver the first submarine by December 1959 and the second vessel by March 1960.
SACLANT ASW Research Centre | Establishment of the Centre
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
On 22 August 1965, after eight days of operation the satellite was deorbited, with its return capsule descending by parachute for recovery by Soviet force.
Kosmos 78 | Introduction
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
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
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
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
They were in orbit during the Soviet coup attempt of 1991. For several days, the political situation seriously jeopardised their position.
Anatoly Artsebarsky | Introduction
Before work was completed, however, the Soviet Union launched a second satellite, Sputnik 2, on November 3, 1957. Meanwhile, the spectacular televised failure of Vanguard TV3 on December 6, 1957 deepened American dismay over the country's position in the Space Race. On March 17, 1958, Vanguard 1 became the second artificial satellite successfully placed in Earth orbit by the United States. It was the first solar-powered satellite. Just in diameter and weighing just , Vanguard 1 was described by then-Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev as, "The grapefruit satellite."
Project Vanguard | Introduction
On 1 July 1964, after 8 days in orbit, the satellite was deorbited with its return capsule descending by parachute for recovery by Soviet forces.
Kosmos 33 | Introduction
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
British timing was good. 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 1956 Suez Crisis. At the suggestion of Harold Caccia, the British Ambassador to the United States, Macmillan wrote to Eisenhower on 10 October urging that the two countries pool their resources to meet the challenge.
Operation Grapple | Cooperation with the United States
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
On January 31, 1958, the U.S. Army launched the Explorer 1 satellite. With the launch of Sputnik 1 and 2 the previous concern, the right of satellite overflight, had become moot: those satellites were launched by an early version of the Soviet R-7 rocket, the basis of the USSR's early ICBMs, and definitely military, as well as roughly 40 times larger than the Vanguard launcher. On March 17, 1958, the program successfully launched the Vanguard satellite TV-4. TV-4 achieved a stable orbit with an apogee of and a perigee of . It was estimated that it would remain in orbit for at least 240 years, and it was renamed Vanguard I, which in addition to its upper launch stage remains the oldest human-made satellite still in orbit.
Project Vanguard | Sputnik and Explorer 1
On 23 July 1964, after eight days in orbit, the satellite was deorbited with its return capsule descending by parachute for recovery by Soviet forces.
Kosmos 35 | Introduction
In Britain, the US's Western Cold War ally, the reaction was mixed: some celebrated the fact that the Soviets had reached space first, while others feared the destructive potential that military uses of spacecraft might bring. On January 31, 1958, nearly four months after the launch of "Sputnik 1", von Braun and the United States successfully launched its first satellite on a four-stage Juno I rocket derived from the US Army's Redstone missile, at Cape Canaveral. The satellite "Explorer 1" was in mass. The payload of Explorer 1 weighed . It carried a micrometeorite gauge and a Geiger-Müller tube. It passed in and out of the Earth-encompassing radiation belt with its orbit, therefore saturating the tube's capacity and proving what Dr.
Space Race | US reaction
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
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
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
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
British timing was good. 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. At the suggestion of Harold Caccia, the British Ambassador to the United States, Macmillan wrote to Eisenhower on 10 October urging that the two countries pool their resources to meet the challenge.
British hydrogen bomb programme | Renewed American partnership
On 23 June 1965, after eight days in orbit, the satellite was deorbited with its return capsule descending by parachute for recovery by Soviet forces.
Kosmos 68 | Introduction
On 4 October 1957, the Soviets successfully launched Sputnik I from their R-7 Semyorka ICBM. The US was aware of these efforts and had already talked to the press about it, suggesting that if the Soviets launched a satellite first it would be no big deal. To their surprise, the press exploded in rage over the affair. Having spent over a decade working on similar missiles, like Atlas, the fact that the Soviets could beat them was a serious blow, and prompted a deep review of the ongoing programs. One problem noted from the start was that the internecine fighting between the Army and Air Force was leading to significant duplication of effort, with little to show for it.
PGM-19 Jupiter | Saved from cancellation
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
Korolev was keenly aware of the orbital possibilities of the rockets being designed as ICBMs. He had brought up the idea of using the R-7 to launch a satellite into space to the Central Committee of the Communist Party on May 26, 1954, but was rejected as the Communist Party was uninterested. Korolev's Tikhonravov group filed exaggerated Soviet newspaper articles which were referred by the United States (US) press. This influenced American authorities to start satellite programs, announced on July 29, 1955 by the Eisenhower administration. While the US government debated the idea of spending millions of dollars on this concept, Korolev's group suggested the international prestige of launching a satellite before the United States could act.
Sergei Korolev | Space program
While the Super-Juno program was being drawn up, preparations were underway for the first satellite launch as the US contribution to the International Geophysical Year in 1957. For complex political reasons, the program had been given to the US Navy under Project Vanguard. The Vanguard launcher consisted of a Viking lower stage combined with new uppers adapted from sounding rockets. ABMA provided valuable support on Viking and Vanguard, both with their first-hand knowledge of the V-2, as well as developing its guidance system. The first three Vanguard suborbital test flights had gone off without a hitch, starting in December 1956, and a launch was planned for late 1957.
Saturn (rocket family) | Sputnik stuns the world
After Stalin's death and a short period of collective rule, the new leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced the cult of personality of Stalin and launched the policy of de-Stalinization. The penal labor system was reformed and many prisoners were released and rehabilitated (many of them posthumously). The general easement of repressive policies became known later as the Khrushchev Thaw. At the same time, tensions with the United States heightened when the two rivals clashed over the deployment of the United States Jupiter missiles in Turkey and Soviet missiles in Cuba. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, "Sputnik 1", thus starting the Space Age.
Russia | Cold War
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
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
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
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
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
The U.S. Earth satellite program began in 1954 as a joint U.S. Army and U.S. Navy proposal, called Project Orbiter, to put a scientific satellite into orbit during the International Geophysical Year. The proposal, using a military Redstone missile, was rejected in 1955 by the Eisenhower administration in favor of the Navy's Project Vanguard, using a booster advertised as more civilian in nature. Following the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, the initial Project Orbiter program was revived as the Explorer program to catch up with the Soviet Union. Explorer 1 was designed and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), while a Jupiter-C rocket was modified by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) to accommodate a satellite payload; the resulting rocket known as the Juno I.
Explorer 1 | Background
Istrebitel Sputnikov, or IS (, ИС, meaning "destroyer of satellites"), was a Soviet anti-satellite weapons programme which led to the deployment of the IS-A or I2P system during the 1970s and 1980s. IS satellites were originally intended to launch on UR-200 rockets, but following the cancellation of the UR-200, the Polyot, Tsyklon-2A and Tsyklon-2 rockets were used instead. The first test flights of the IS spacecraft used the I1P configuration, and served to demonstrate the propulsion and control systems of the spacecraft. Both were launched by Polyot rockets, and were designated Polyot 1 and Polyot 2. They were launched on 1 November 1963 and 12 April 1964 respectively.
Istrebitel Sputnikov | Introduction
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
This size discrepancy was apparent due to the gap in weapon technology as the United States was able to develop much smaller nuclear warheads than their soviet counterparts. The Soviet Union later launched Sputnik 2 less than a month later. The Soviet's satellite success caused a stir in America as people question why the United States had fallen behind the Soviet Union and if they could launch nuclear missiles at large American cities i.e. Chicago, Seattle, and Atlanta. President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by creating the President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). This committee was appointed to lead the United States in policy for scientific and defense strategies.
Cold War (1953–1962) | Origins of the Space Race
Hours after the launch, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign Astronomy Department rigged an "ad hoc" interferometer to measure signals from the satellite. Donald B. Gillies and Jim Snyder programmed the ILLIAC I computer to calculate the satellite orbit from this data. The programming and calculation was completed in less than two days. The rapid publication of the ephemeris (orbit) in the journal "Nature" within a month of the satellite launch helped to dispel some of the fears created by the Sputnik launch. It also lent credence to the spurious idea that the Sputnik launch was part of an organized effort to dominate space.
Sputnik crisis | Launch
Between 9 and 10 January 2015, the satellite reentered into the atmosphere.
MaSat-1 | Introduction
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
On 30 January 1966, after eight days in orbit, the satellite was deorbited with its return capsule descending by parachute for recovery by Soviet force.
Kosmos 105 | Introduction
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
From 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1. In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch an artificial satellite for the International Geophysical Year (1957–58). An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard. After the Soviet space program's launch of the world's first artificial satellite ("Sputnik 1") on October 4, 1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. The U.S. Congress, alarmed by the perceived threat to national security and technological leadership (known as the "Sputnik crisis"), urged immediate and swift action; President Dwight D.
Creation of NASA | 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
had launched Project Vanguard as its own "civilian" satellite entry for the International Geophysical Year. Eisenhower greatly underestimated the reaction of the American public, who were shocked by the launch of Sputnik and by the televised failure of the Vanguard Test Vehicle 3 launch attempt. The sense of anxiety was inflamed by Democratic politicians and professional cold warriors, who portrayed the United States as woefully behind. One of the many books that suddenly appeared for the lay-audience noted seven points of "impact" upon the nation: Western leadership, Western strategy and tactics, missile production, applied research, basic research, education, and democratic culture.
Sputnik 1 | Legacy
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 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
Sputnik 2 launched almost a month later on November 3, 1957 with a mission goal of carrying the first dog, Laika, into Earth orbit. This mission, though unsuccessful in the sense that Laika did not survive the mission, further established the USSR's position in the Cold War. Not only were the soviets capable of launching a missile into space, but they could continue to complete successful space launches before the United States could complete one launch.
Cold War (1953–1962) | Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2
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
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union unexpectedly launched Sputnik I. Although there had been some idea that the Soviets were working towards this goal, even in public, no one considered it to be very serious. When asked about the possibility in a November 1954 press conference, Defense Secretary Wilson replied: "I wouldn't care if they did." The public did not see it the same way, however, and the event was a major public relations disaster for the US. Vanguard was planned to launch shortly after Sputnik, but a series of delays pushed this into December, when the rocket exploded in spectacular fashion.
Saturn (rocket family) | Sputnik stuns the world
In October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched the first Earth satellite into space. Sputnik 1's official mission was to send back data from space, however the effects of this launch were monumental for both the USSR and the United States. For both countries, the launch of Sputnik 1 sparked the start of the Timeline of the Space Race. It created a curiosity for space flight and a relatively peaceful competition to the Moon. However the initial effects of Sputnik 1 for the United States was not a matter of exploration, but a matter of national security. What the USSR proved to the world, and mainly the United States, was that they were capable of launching a missile into space and potentially an ICBM carrying nuclear cargo at the United States.
Cold War (1953–1962) | Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2
On 15 May 1965, after eight days in orbit, the satellite was deorbited so that its return capsule could be recovered and its photos analysed, however, the mission was unsuccessful because a parachute deployment failed and the spacecraft was destroyed in the subsequent crash.
Kosmos 66 | Introduction