The World's First Artificial Satellite
On October 4, 1957, one of the defining moments in human history occurred. The
Soviet Union announced it had launched the world's first artificial
As the 184-pound spacecraft sailed around the Earth at more than 17,000 m.p.h.,
the United States could only watch. The U.S. myth of technological and
sociological supremacy lay in pieces. And the ones who had shattered this
perception were the very people the United States feared the most and
understood the least.
The Soviets made sure the United States could not discount Sputnik as simply
verbal propaganda. Sunlight reflecting off its polished aluminum sphere made
it easily visible to the naked eye as a brilliant star moving among the
heavens. It also had a voice–an insistent "beep-beep-beep"
transmitted by its battery-powered radio on a frequency that could be picked up
by any amateur radio operator.
Sputnik I's message was clear to the United States and the Free World. If the
Soviets could launch a satellite into orbit, they could just as easily place a
nuclear warhead into orbit as well. Every 96 minutes, as the satellite sailed
over some portion of the Free World, it announced that it was "up there," and
neither the Americans nor anyone else could do anything about it.
Sputnik's coup had tremendous political repercussions throughout the world.
Overnight, the balance of global power shifted from the United States to the
Soviet Union. The security blanket against Soviet attack thrown over the Free
World by the United States had vanished. The United States had suffered a
propaganda setback from which it was not to recover for years. The Cold War
intensified and the Space Race was on.
While it is true that Sputnik itself was highly-polished and reflective, what
most people saw passing overhead was actually the core (second) stage of the
R-7 rocket which launched Sputnik into orbit, which was a much larger object.