Sputnik

[paullev]

Good to see all these thoughts about Sputnik. I'm mostly sad that we haven't gone much further, but still hopeful. My podcast Celebrating Sputnik and my Sputnik's 50th Anniversary go into more detail.<br />

 

[alokmohan]

In the fall of 1957, pitcher Lew Burdette's fastball gave the Milwaukee Braves a surprise World Series win over the New York Yankees. In Little Rock, Ark., white mobs rioted after nine black students dared to attend Central High School. On television, Leave It to Beaver made its debut. But for many people across the globe, the most riveting show was playing out overhead. <br /><br /> <br />Fifty years ago this month, the Russians created a sensation and sparked the space race when they launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth.<br />JPL/NASA; (lyrics) © Jerry Englerth/The Songwriters Advocate Music—BMI<br /> <br /><br />Reaching an altitude as high as 940 kilometers, a shiny aluminum sphere was circling Earth 14 times a day. Scientists tracked its orbit, while ham radio operators tuned in to its alien "beep-beep"—a sound that radio and television stations around the globe rebroadcast to millions. Some feared that the beeps were a sinister code that would help the Russians drop a nuclear bomb. Others simply marveled at how a 184-pound hunk of metal could rocket into the sky and stay there. <br /><br />The space age began on Oct. 4, 1957, when the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth. "Soviet Fires Earth Satellite Into Space," blared the New York Times headline. "Myth has become reality: Earth's gravity conquered," read the banner of France's Le Figaro. <br /><br />Fifty years later, satellites for science, surveillance, and communication have become commonplace. But if Sputnik was supposed to usher in an era of human colonies on the moon and astronauts rocketing off to other planets, that part of the story seems to have sputtered. <br /><br /><br />First stage<br />If the U.S. public was caught off guard by Sputnik's launch, the country's scientists were not. Two years earlier, they and their Soviet counterparts had agreed to launch satellites carrying scientific instruments during the International Geophysical Year, b

 

[PistolPete]

I'm not shocked at all. As time has gone on the proportion of gullibility, paranoia, and stupidity in Americas has gone up instead of down. The fact that we decided to fight with a "space race" instead of a third world war meant that cooler heads prevailed. I sometimes wonder if cooler heads would prevail today. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><em>So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.</em></p><p><strong>-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai</strong></p> </div>

 

[SpaceKiwi]

Better get your orders in quick, Guys.<br /><br /><br /><font color="yellow"><b>Out-of-this-world sales for Sputnik coin</b> <br />The Dominion Post<br />Tuesday, 9 October 2007<br />ANDREW GORRIE<br /><br />Fifty years after the Russian satellite Sputnik launched the international space race, the New Zealand Mint is facing astronomical demand for its commemorative coin to mark the anniversary. <br /><br />Russian ambassador Mikhail Lysenko, who checked out the coin yesterday, said of Sputnik's venture into space on October 4, 1957: "It was not just the launch of a piece of metal, but the launch of a new era of space technology." <br /><br />The anniversary was celebrated throughout Russia, Mr Lysenko said. <br /><br />New Zealand Mint general manager Mark Sutton said sales of the coins had been successful, with buyers from as far afield as the Ukraine, Germany, the United States and Australia. <br /><br />More than 5100 of the 6000 coins had sold in a week - with more than 3000 coins sold in Russia, one of the company's largest markets. <br /><br />The coin sells for NZ$100 and comes in a small globe which, when opened, plays an original recording of Sputnik's signature sound as it transmitted radio beeps indicating temperature and pressure. <br /><br />Sputnik, which weighed 87 kilograms, was the first satellite fired into orbit.</font><br /><br /><br />LINK<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em><font size="2" color="#ff0000">Who is this superhero?  Henry, the mild-mannered janitor ... could be!</font></em></p><p><em><font size="2">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</font></em></p><p><font size="5">Bring Back The Black!</font></p> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

Sputnik was the brainchild of a group of Russian engineers, led by Chief Designer Sergei Korolev, who were tasked in 1954 with developing the nation's first intercontinental ballistic missile. The following year, Korolev was granted permission to pursue his real dream—an artificial satellite capable of exploring the origin of cosmic rays and other scientific questions—after the U.S. announced its intention to put a satellite into orbit as early as 1957 to mark the so-called International Geophysical Year. <br /><br />When Korolev's team failed to complete a proposed 1,000-kilogram- (2,200-pound-) plus satellite on time, it switched gears to a bare-bones design for a much smaller craft dubbed "simple satellite," or Sputnik for short. On October 4, 1957, an R-7 ballistic missile blasted off from the plains of Kazakhstan carrying the 58-centimeter (23-inch), 83-kilogram (183-pound) aluminum orb, essentially a radio transmitter with four swept-back antennas. <br /><br />The R-7 was the largest missile of its time and "much more powerful than anything the Americans had," Georgi Grechko, a Russian rocket engineer and former cosmonaut, told the Associated Press this week. <br /><br />Americans—even the most technologically savvy—were stunned. "We didn't expect it that soon," says Henry Richter, a former JPL rocket engineer who worked on Explorer 1, the first successful U.S. satellite. "Nobody had ever launched a satellite before. We didn't know we could do it. Here it was suddenly up in the sky sending radio signals." <br /><br />The following month, the Soviets launched the country's most famous dog, Laika, into orbit on Sputnik 2. At around 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds), the second Sputnik dwarfed the U.S. Vanguard satellite, which at 1.6 kilograms (3.5 pounds) was slated to be the first attempt, but had yet to launch. Sputnik 2 was also roughly the size of an American warhead, Conway says, but the U.S. could build a smaller warhead because it had more sophisticated elect

 

[alokmohan]

(Washington DC) The U.S. House of Representatives today overwhelmingly passed a concurrent resolution (H.Con.Res. 225) honoring the 50th anniversary of the dawn of the Space Age, which occurred on October 4, 1957 with the launch of Sputnik 1. <br /><br />That event was followed shortly by the successful launch of the American Explorer 1 satellite, which discovered the Van Allen radiation belts among other scientific accomplishments. H.Con.Res. 225 was introduced by House Committee on Science and Technology Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN), with Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Chairman Mark Udall (D-CO), Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Nick Lampson (D-TX), Ranking Member Ralph Hall (R-TX), and Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Ranking Member Tom Feeney (R-FL) as original cosponsors. (spaceref.com)<br />.WE SHULD NOT FORGET VAN ALLEN.HIS WODERFUL BELT IS PROTECTING US.<br />

 

[h2ouniverse]

In reply to "WE SHULD NOT FORGET VAN ALLEN.HIS WODERFUL BELT IS PROTECTING US. "<br /><br />------------<br />Umpf.<br />Crossing VA belts costs Solar Arrays lifetime.<br />And has prevented Deinococcus Radiodurans to get a decisive evolutionnary advantage.<br />A pity. A Homo Radiodurans would have been great for space age...<br />

 

[alokmohan]

Van Allen has not got his due credit.He saved US in space age.

 

[alokmohan]

Kazakhstan - In this remote and rusting town on the barren steppes of Central Asia, the space race and the Sputnik era seem much more than a memory. <br /><br />ADVERTISEMENT<br /> <br />Rockets still pierce the heavens in a halo of smoke during launches, and engineers and military men still crack open bottles of vodka to celebrate a successful launch. What has changed are the passengers. Nowadays Baikonur embraces the world, from wealthy space tourists to the world's first Malaysian cosmonaut, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, who blasted off for the international space station on Oct. 10.<br /><br />The city itself is a rusting relic of the golden age of Russian rocketryKazakhstan - In this remote and rusting town on the barren steppes of Central Asia, the space race and the Sputnik era seem much more than a memo<br /><br />http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071021/ap_on_sc/russia_s_gateway_to_space

 

[bobblebob]

Build your own Sputnik <img src="/images/icons/cool.gif" /><br /><br />http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7049002.stm