Sputnik 1 ˈ s p ʊ t n ɪ k ˈ s p ʌ t n ɪ k.
Launching of the first artificial earth satellite.
That launch ushered in new political military technological and scientific developments.
The white house agreed that this might be a good idea and announced plans to launch an earth orbiting satellite to take measurements of the upper atmosphere and the effects of the solar wind.
See photos from the historic mission.
The soviet union launched it into an elliptical low earth orbit on 4 october 1957.
On 4 october 1957 the soviet union launched the world s first artificial satellite sputnik 1 since then about 8 900 satellites from more than 40 countries have been launched.
Or 183 9 pounds and took about 98 minutes to orbit earth on its elliptical path.
It orbited for three weeks before its batteries died and then orbited silently for two months before.
Such satellites were not a new idea.
In the context of spaceflight a satellite is an object that has been intentionally placed into orbit these objects are called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as earth s moon.
The world s first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball 58 cm or 22 8 inches in diameter weighed only 83 6 kg.
Sputnik any of a series of three artificial earth satellites the first of whose launch by the soviet union on october 4 1957 inaugurated the space age.
4 1957 the former soviet union successfully launched sputnik 1 the first human made object to enter earth orbit.
In october 1954 scientists called for the first ones to be launched during igy to map earth s surface.