50 Years Ago
Published on Oct 3, 2007 at 7:02 pm.
8 Comments.
Filed under history, space exploration.
50 years ago a Soviet R-7 missile sat on its launch pad at its Tyuratam Cosmodrome. The R-7 missile was the creation of Sergei Korolev, a name not known to the western world for many years thereafter. Originally designed to carry a multi-ton nuclear warhead, this missile was carrying another of Korolev’s creations: a 23 inch diameter sphere of polished aluminum. Attached to the sphere were four long whip antennae. Inside the sphere were temperature and pressure sensors, batteries, and two radio transmitters. The transmitters were designed to emit beeps with the temperature and pressure data encoded in the beeps. Broadcasting at 20MHz and 40MHz, the beeps could easily be detected by amateur radio operators. The name of the sphere was ПроÑтейший Спутник-1 (or Elementary Co-traveler-1). The satellite name Спутник is written in English as Sputnik. It was launched into space, to become Earth’s very first artificial satellite, on October 4, 1957.
Sputnik-1 was not Korolev’s original choice for the first man-made object to be put into Earth orbit. He, like Wernher von Braun, had long dreamed of extending the capabilities of his rockets to launch a payload into space. As early as May 26, 1954, Korolev had made a proposal to his superiors that an R-7 missile be modified to launch a payload into orbit around Earth. The proposal languished in the Soviet bureaucracy, though, until US President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced on July 29, 1955, that the United States of America intended to launch an artificial Earth orbiting satellite sometime during the International Geophysical Year that ran from July 1, 1957, through December 31, 1958. Within about a week, Korolev’s proposal was approved. Korolev’s original plan was to construct a massive heavily instrumented craft of mass in excess of one metric ton. However, the United States was making progress with its Vanguard program, so Korolev agreed to hurriedly build a much smaller satellite as an initial test of the R-7 missile as an orbital launch vehicle. This simpler vehicle became Sputnik-1, and it was launched not much more than a month after conception. A much larger payload was launched only a month later, on November 3, 1957, as Sputnik-2, with the dog Laika aboard. Both Sputnik-1 and Sputnik-2 were primarily missions designed to show the prowess of the Soviet Union’s launch technology rather than as science missions like Korolev’s originally proposed satellite. Korolev’s original plan for an Earth-orbiting satellite finally saw form on May 15, 1958, with the launch of Sputnik-3.
At the time, the Soviet leaders did not at once realize the significance of Sputnik. It was a minor mention in their news. But, the international response to Sputnik changed their opinion. The rest of the world was shocked to hear the news. America’s efforts to launch a satellite were public and under world scrutiny, including our failures. But, the Soviet Union did all of their work in secret. Even Korolev’s name was withheld for decades. He was referred to simply as the “chief designer.”
Sputnik was polished to a mirrored surface. Ideally, sunlight catching off of the shiny surface would be visible to observers on the ground below. However, Sputnik-1 was very tiny, and the spherical shape did not reflect a lot of light to the ground below, making the satellite very difficult to observe. Millions of people, though, went out at night when Sputnik was due to pass overhead and saw a moving dot go by. They had seen Sputnik! Or so, they thought. As it turns out, they were seeing the spent upper stage of the R-7 booster rather than the much smaller satellite. Sputnik continued to orbit the Earth long after its batteries died, finally reentering the Earth’s atmosphere after 1440 orbits on January 4, 1958. And, anyone who could gain access to a shortwave radio tuned in to hear Sputnik beeping (listen to it here).
Sputnik caused quite a stir. The Soviet Union beat America to putting the first artificial satellite into orbit. America’s rocket scientists had no idea that the Soviet Union was capable of such a feat. We knew that they were working on the program, but most felt that America still had the lead. America’s intelligence community, though, knew that the Soviets were far farther along on the project than our rocket scientists knew, but that information was a carefully guarded secret. Our intelligence community did not want the Soviets to know how much we knew about their program. Tomorrow, I’ll blog some more about Sputnik.
You can read more about the Sputnik program in Paul Dickson’s book Sputnik: The Shock of the Century. Another good book to learn about Sputnik and the decisions leading to it is James Harford’s book
Korolov: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon. Both books are excellent and give not only a chronology of the events from the Soviet side of the first days of the Space Race, but they also give some insights into the men who made the decisions that led to Sputnik and eventually Soyuz.
-Astroprof
(A followup posting to this can be found here.)
Sorting Out Science » Blog Archive » Sputnik hyperindex on October 4, 2007 at 11:50 am: 1
[…] Astroprof’s Page » 50 Years Ago Backreaction: Sputnik, fifty years later Bad Astronomy Blog » October 4, 1957 The Intersection: Happy Sputnik Anniversary Sputnik Plus Fifty - Share Your Memories | Science Blog Science Made Cool: Fifty Years In Space Science Musings Blog Tom’s Astronomy Blog » Blog Archive » Sputnik – 50th Anniversary […]
Astrolink [International Edition] » Blog Archive » Astrosphere for October 4th, 2007 on October 4, 2007 at 1:38 pm: 2
[…] The 50th anniversary Sputnik stories are flying fast and furious, everywhere you look. Everyone, has a story about this. I didn't write one for Universe Today, because I was too busy working on one for Wired. Check out Sputnik's grandchildren. […]
Astroprof’s Page » The Legacy of Sputnik on October 4, 2007 at 4:36 pm: 3
[…] « The Legacy of Sputnik » […]
Connecting News, Commentaries and Blogs at NineReports.com - on October 4, 2007 at 9:24 pm: 4
[…] 50th anniversary of Sputnik …Blogged about at 50 Years Ago - astroprof’s page, It’s the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik. […]
Paul Dickson on October 5, 2007 at 5:16 am: 5
Dear Astroprof, Thanks for the kind words about my book Sputnik the Shock of the Century. Your readers might be interested in hearing that it is the basis for a new film by David Hoffman called Sputnik Mania which was shown last night in Dallas on Sputnik’s 50th. More about the film at SputnikMania.com and more about my book at Sputnikbook.com
Astroprof’s Page » You are go for launch! on November 8, 2007 at 6:46 pm: 6
[…] Both the United States and the Soviet Union had planned to launch a satellite during the International Geophysical Year of 1957-1958. The Soviets got their satellite, Sputnik, off first, on October 3, 1957. I wrote about that a little over a month ago. American rocket scientists, of course, knew that the Soviets were working on a satellite program, but we didn’t know how far along they were. The American satellite program was having problems and was far behind schedule in development. Then, the Soviets surprised the world again by launching Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957. […]
Astroprof’s Page » JPL 2008 Rose Parade Float on December 28, 2007 at 1:09 pm: 7
[…] It was 50 years ago that mankind first put an object into orbit around Earth. First, it was the Soviet Union, on October 3, 1957, with Sputnik. Then, after several failures with the Vanguard rockets, the United States launched Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958. The JPL float has Explorer 1 at the center, with a future Mars rover at one end, and a Voyager interplanetary (now, interstellar) spacecraft at the other end. The float is covered with seaweed, eucalyptus leaves, and pea and walnut shells. It also, naturally, has lots and lots of flowers (it is the Tournament of Roses, after all!). It has roses, of course. But, it also has carnations, daisies, chrysanthemums, strawflowers, and everlastings. […]
Astroprof’s Page » Explorer 1 on January 30, 2008 at 5:21 pm: 8
[…] The satellite, officially Satellite 1958 Alpha, was dubbed Explorer 1. It was the United States’ first orbiting satellite. There had been previous launches of rockets carrying payloads to the edge of space in suborbital flights, but Explorer 1 was the first thing that America put into orbit. It followed earlier failed attempts to launch Vanguard spacecraft. Both the United States and the Soviet Union had declared intentions of launching an orbiting satellite during the International Geophysical Year, which ran from July of 1957 through December of 1958. The Soviet Union beat America into space by launching Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957. On November 3, 1957, they surprised the world again by launching a dog into space aboard Sputnik 2. Vanguard was not doing well, and America was falling behind in the space race. So, von Braun was given the go-ahead to complete development on his plans to place a satellite into orbit. […]