Information about Sputnik

The Sputnik program was a series of unmanned space missions launched by the Soviet Union in late 1957 to demonstrate the viability of artificial satellites for exploring the upper atmosphere as part of the International Geophysical Year. It included Sputnik 1, the first man-made object to orbit earth.

The Russian name "Спутник" means literally "co-traveler","traveling companion" or "satellite", and its R-7 launch vehicle was designed initially to carry nuclear warheads.

Impact

The surprise launch of Sputnik 1, coupled with the spectacular failure of the United States' first two Project Vanguard launch attempts, shocked the United States, which responded with a number of early satellite launches, including Explorer I, Project SCORE, and Courier 1B. The Sputnik crisis also led to the creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA and NASA, and to major increases in U.S. government spending on scientific research and education. The launch of Sputnik 1 inspired U.S. writer Herb Caen to coin the term "beatnik" in an article about the Beat Generation in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 2, 1958.^[1] See also: -nik.

Early flights

Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957. The satellite was 58 cm (about 23 in) in diameter and weighed approximately 83.6 kg (about 183 lb). Each of its elliptical orbits around the Earth took about 96 minutes. Monitoring of the satellite was done by Amateur radio operators. The first long range flight of the R-7 booster used to launch it had occurred on August 21 and was described in Aviation Week.

Sputnik 2 was launched on November 3, 1957 and carried the first living passenger into orbit, a dog named Laika. The mission planners did not provide for the safe return of the spacecraft or its passenger, making Laika the first orbital casualty. This mission was promptly dubbed "Muttnick" by US humorists.^[2]

The first attempt to launch Sputnik 3, on February 3, 1958, failed, but the second on May 15 succeeded, and it carried a large array of instruments for geophysical research. Its tape recorder failed, however, making it unable to measure the Van Allen radiation belts.

Sputnik 4 was launched two years later, on May 15, 1960.

Sputnik 5 was launched on August 19, 1960 with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants on board. The spacecraft returned to earth the next day and all animals were recovered safely.

Sputnik 40 and Sputnik 41

Sputnik 40, also called Sputnik PS2, Radio Sputnik 17 (RS-17) and Mini-Sputnik, was a ¹⁄₃-scale model amateur radio satellite launched from the Mir space station on 3 November 1997 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Sputnik 1. The spacecraft body resembled Sputnik 1 and was built by students at the Polytechnic Laboratory of Nalchik in Kabardino-Balkaria. The transmitter was built by students from Jules Reydellet College in Réunion, with technical support from AMSAT-France. Its batteries expired on 29 December 1997 and the VHF transmitter fell silent.^[3][4][5] Its international designator is 1997-058C, United States Space Command object 24958.^[6]

Sputnik 41 (RS-18, designator 1998-62C, object 25533^[7]) was launched a year later, on 10 November 1998. It also carried a transmitter.

References

See also

• Soviet space program
• Sergei Korolev: chief designer of Sputnik
• Donald B. Gillies: one of the first to calculate the Sputnik I orbit.
• Dickson, Paul, Sputnik: The Shock of the Century, Walker & Company (June 26, 2007), ISBN 978-0802713650

External links

Three recent historical articles are noteworthy for their research and debunking of common misinformation:

• id="CITEREFMitchell">Mitchell, Don, Sputnik: 50 Years Ago, <[1] (retrieved on 2007-10-10)
  • id="CITEREFSiddiqi">Siddiqi, Asif, Sputnik: A History of the Beginning of the Space Age, <[2] (retrieved on 2007-10-10)
    • id="CITEREFZak">Zak, Anatoly, Sputnik, <[3] (retrieved on 2007-10-10)
      
      Other sites on Sputnik:
      • - An interview with Sir Arthur C. Clarke on Sputnik
      • NASA's 50th Anniversary of the Space Age & Sputnik - Interactive Media
      • Secrets of 1957 Sputnik Launch Revealed
      • 50th anniversary of the Earth's first artificial satellite launch. RIA Novosti Video
      • Sputnik
      • Sputnik Program Page by NASA's Solar System Exploration
      • Diary of the Sputnik Programme
      Sputnik may refer to:

      • The Sputnik program in which satellites were launched by the Soviet Union beginning in the 1950s

      Software

      • The Sputnik browser for the MorphOS operating system

      
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      Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (abbreviated USSR, Russian: (help info ) ; tr.
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      19th century - 20th century - 21st century
      1920s  1930s  1940s  - 1950s -  1960s  1970s  1980s
      1954 1955 1956 - 1957 - 1958 1959 1960
      
      Year 1957 (MCMLVII
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      satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon.
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      The International Geophysical Year or IGY was an international scientific effort that lasted from July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958.
      
      The IGY encompassed eleven Earth sciences: aurora and airglow, cosmic rays, geomagnetism, gravity, ionospheric physics, longitude and
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      Sputnik 1 (Russian: "Спутник-1", "Satellite-1", or literally "Co-traveler-1" byname ПС-1 (PS-1, i.e.
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      Russian}}} 
      Writing system: Cyrillic (Russian variant)  
      Official status
      Official language of:  Abkhazia (Georgia)
       Belarus
       Commonwealth of Independent States (working)
       Crimea (de facto; Ukraine)
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      R-7 Semyorka (Russian: Р-7 "Семёрка") was the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile and was deployed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War from 1959 to 1968.
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      ballistic missile is a missile that follows a sub-orbital, ballistic flightpath with the objective of delivering a warhead to a predetermined target. The missile is only guided during the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight and its course is subsequently governed by
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      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.
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      Motto
      "In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
      "E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
      Anthem
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      Explorer-I, officially Satellite 1958 Alpha (and sometimes referred to as Explorer 1), was the first Earth satellite of the United States, having been launched at 10:48pm EST on January 31 (03:48 on 1 February in GMT), 1958, as part of the United States program for
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      Project SCORE (Signal Communications Orbit Relay Equipment) was the world’s first communications satellite. Launched in an Atlas rocket on December 18 1958, SCORE provided a first test of a communications relay system in space and captured world attention by
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      Launched 4 October 1960, Courier 1B was the world’s first active repeater satellite. Courier was built by the Palo Alto, California–based Western Development Labs (WDL) division of Philco, previously known as Army Fort Monmouth Laboratories and now the Space
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      The 'Sputnik crisis' was a turning point of the Cold War that began on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 1 satellite. The USA had believed itself to be the world leader in space technology and thus the leader in missile development.
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      Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
      
      Agency overview
      Formed 1958
      
      Employees 240
      Annual Budget $3.2 billion
      
      Agency Executive Anthony J. Tether, Director
      
      Website
      www.darpa.
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      Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
      
      Agency overview
      Formed 1958
      
      Employees 240
      Annual Budget $3.2 billion
      
      Agency Executive Anthony J. Tether, Director
      
      Website
      www.darpa.
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      National Aeronautics and Space Administration
      
      NASA logo
      Motto: For the Benefit of All^[1]
      
      NASA seal
      Agency overview
      Formed 29 July 1958
      
      Headquarters Washington D.C.
      
      Annual Budget $16.
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      For the hockey player, please see Herb Cain.

      
      
      Herbert Eugene Caen (April 3, 1916 – February 1, 1997) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist working in San Francisco.
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      Beatnik is a media stereotype that borrowed the most superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s to present a distorted (and sometimes violent), cartoon-like misrepresentation of the real-life people and the spirituality found in Jack Kerouac's
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      The 2005-07-27 front page of
      "The Voice of the West"
      Type Daily newspaper
      Format Broadsheet
      

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      Owner Hearst Communications
      Publisher Frank J. Vega
      Editor Phil Bronstein
      Founded 1865
      Price US$ 0.46 + tax Daily
      US$ 1.
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      April 2 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

      Events

      • 68 - Galba, governor of Hispania, names himself legatus senatus populique Romani

      
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      1955 1956 1957 - 1958 - 1959 1960 1961
      
      Year 1958 (MCMLVIII
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      The English suffix -nik is of Slavic origin. It approximately corresponds to the suffix "-er" and nearly always denotes an agent noun (that is, it describes a person related to the thing, state, habit, or action described by the word to which the suffix is attached).
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      Sputnik 1 (Russian: "Спутник-1", "Satellite-1", or literally "Co-traveler-1" byname ПС-1 (PS-1, i.e.
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      October 4 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

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      19th century - 20th century - 21st century
      1920s  1930s  1940s  - 1950s -  1960s  1970s  1980s
      1954 1955 1956 - 1957 - 1958 1959 1960
      
      Year 1957 (MCMLVII
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      Amateur radio, often called ham radio, is both a hobby and a service that uses various types of radio communications equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for public service, recreation and self-training.
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      R-7 Semyorka (Russian: Р-7 "Семёрка") was the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile and was deployed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War from 1959 to 1968.
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      August 21 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

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