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The Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite aboard an R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile on October 4, 1957. Called Sputnik Zemlyi (“traveling companion of the world”), more commonly Sputnik 1, the satellite’s simple "beep beep" audio radio signals were picked up by scientists and ham radio operators around the world. The signals continued until the transmitter batteries were exhausted on October 26, 1957. The spacecraft’s orbit decayed during the following weeks, and it was destroyed during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere on January 4, 1958.
The launch of Sputnik 1 was greeted with both celebration and alarm around the world. It had far-reaching technological and political consequences, especially in the United States. It ushered in the Space Race between the United States and Soviet Union in the late 1950s through the 1960s, culminating in the Apollo Moon landings.
The Museum of Flight's Sputnik 1 was a contemporary technological duplicate, most probably manufactured for exhibition purposes by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. It was acquired by the Museum in 2001.
The Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite aboard an R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile on October 4, 1957. Called Sputnik Zemlyi (“traveling companion of the world”), more commonly Sputnik 1, the satellite’s simple "beep beep" audio radio signals were picked up by scientists and ham radio operators around the world. The signals continued until the transmitter batteries were exhausted on October 26, 1957. The spacecraft’s orbit decayed during the following weeks, and it was destroyed during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere on January 4, 1958.
The launch of Sputnik 1 was greeted with both celebration and alarm around the world. It had far-reaching technological and political consequences, especially in the United States. It ushered in the Space Race between the United States and Soviet Union in the late 1950s through the 1960s, culminating in the Apollo Moon landings.
The Museum of Flight's Sputnik 1 was a contemporary technological duplicate, most probably manufactured for exhibition purposes by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. It was acquired by the Museum in 2001.
Now located in: APOLLO
