Sputnik

Sputnik Forty-five years ago, a shiny aluminum sphere made its way into Earth orbit, stunning Americans and changing history. This Earth-orbiting satellite, weighing a mere 184 pounds, was called Sputnik. It all began in 1952, when it was determined that the period from July 1, 1957 to December 31, 1958 would be one with high cycles of solar activity. With this knowledge, the International Council of Scientific Unions decided to deem this upcoming year the International Geophysical Year (IGY). In 1954, the council suggested that the U.S. launch satellites during the IGY. The next year, 1955, the White House took the councils advice and urged for government research agencies’ proposals to assume responsibility in the development of satellite launches. In September of that same year, the Naval Research Laboratory’s Vanguard proposal was selected to represent the U.S. during the IGY. The American public was caught off-guard on October 4, 1957 when Russia beat the United States to taking advantage of the IGY. Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite was launched. The size of Sputnik was much more impressive than the intended U.S. satellite, Vanguard. A downfall was in Sputniks radio transmitters, sputnik, launch, satellite, year, igy, time, space, 1957, vanguard, ussr, united, transmitters, sputniks, scientific, satellites, research, radio, political, orbit, one, launched, international, fear, earth, during, days, council, brought, began, americans, after, years, world’s, white, wernher, weight