Sputnik

Sputnik-1, which was otherwise known in the Soviet Union as Satellite-1 or Cпутник-1 was the first artificial satellite to be put in Earth’s orbit. It was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957. The launch of Sputnik would later cause the Sputnik Crisis and that would then start the Space Race between the U.S.S.R. and the United States. Because of that the Sputnik launch marked the beginning of the Space Age. This in turn credits the Sputnik Launch for indirectly creating the mass amount of technology that came out of the Space Race.

Creation

Sputnik-1 was conceived when Sergei Korolev addressed Dmitriy Ustinov who was the Minister of Defence. Korolev proposed to him the idea of an artificial satellite which orbited Earth. On January 30 1956 the Soviet Union approved the idea. Sputnik was codenamed Object D and was expected to be completed by 1958. It originally was to be over a ton and was supposed to carry scientific equipment for measurements. Instead, due to fear that the United States would launch a satellite before the USSR, they scrapped Object D and flew a simple satellite into space which would emit a radio signal. This was Sputnik 1. It might not have done much to further society than being the first but it being the first sparked what would soon be called the Space Race due to the American Sputnik Crisis.

Effect

• Sputnik-1 was responsible for the Sputnik Crisis where Americans lost their sense of superiority in technology and lead to an era of accelerated research sciences.
• Sputnik-1 was the first satellite in space which set the precedence that space is free and the satellites could fly over foreign countries.
• Sputnik-1 as the first satellite could also be credited for something we take for granted while driving which is the Global Positioning System(GPS) and many others things satellites are capable of.