It was 50 years ago, on October 4, 1957, that the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik-1 satellite, ignited the space race, and the rest as they say, is history.

 

According to NASA, the world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a basketball, weighed only 183 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path.

 

Sputnik-1 preceded Sputnik-II by about a month. That second satellite also carried a more interesting payload, namely a dog named Laika.

 

In addition to sparking the so-called space race that has since seen men land on the moon and the construction of an International Space Station and is now entertaining thoughts of sending people to Mars, the Soviet launch of Sputnik set into motion actions that eventually led to the formation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) approximately oneyear later on October 1, 1958.

 

NASA happens to be the first organization that I ever worked at in an editorial capacity, back when I was the chief copy editor for the technology-transfer magazine, NASA Tech Briefs.