Today marks 50 years since the first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1, was launched into geocentric orbit on October 4th, 1957.

The satellite helped to identify the density of high atmospheric layers by its orbit change and provided data on radio-signal distribution in the ionosphere. Because the satellite’s body was filled with pressurized nitrogen, Sputnik 1 also provided the first opportunity for meteorite detection, as losses in internal pressure due to meteoroid penetration of the outer surface would have been evident in the temperature data. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1’s success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the so-called Space Race within the Cold War.

Sputnik-1 was set in motion during the International Geophysical Year from the 5th Tyuratam range in Kazakh SSR (now Baikonur Cosmodrome). The satellite travelled at 29,000 kilometers per hour and emitted radio signals which were monitored by Amateur radio operators throughout the world. The signals continued for 22 days until the transmitter batteries ran out on October 26, 1957. Sputnik 1 burned as it fell from orbit upon reentering Earth’s atmosphere, after traveling about 60 million km in orbit.
{{via Wikipedia}}

You can download the radio signals that Sputnik emitted Wikipedia (Ogg Vorbis) or at NASA (Wav). Or listen through Wikipedias Java Audio Player.

There have since been 40 Sputnik’s launched. Our machinery serving and observing from the edge of our planet. I’m glad I’m still filled with a sense of admiration for satellites, they amaze me. They amaze me in the way I sometimes manage to break the sense of normality regarding airplanes — and recapture that feeling of how remarkable it is that we’ve made chunks of steel fly. (Then there are times when I curse the fact that we can’t even make change machines that don’t reject every other bill you give them. But that’s material for another post.)

They’re there now. About 560 of them. Orbiting the Earth, becoming more intelligent, extending our intelligence, powering our phones, helping us communicate. It began with this single, round metal shape, flying at 29,000 kilometers per hour.

Here’s to Sputnik and its creators. And to the future.