How Sputnik Unleashed Space Age

With the launch of a basketball-size satellite on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union ushered in the â??Space Ageâ? and changed the world. Sputnik 1, launched from the Soviet Unionâ??s rocket test site near Tyuratam, Kazakhistan, was a mere 184-pound â??hunk of iron almost anybody could launch,â? as a U.S. Navy admiral characterized it, but it carried on its orbital trajectory a symbolism far beyond its size. It was a first step beyond this planet, and we have never known a time since when there has not been some human-made object in Earth orbit. It reversed the image of the Soviet Union as a backwater and placed the country on an international footing near to that of the United States. It also established spaceflight as evidence of progress and forward thinking among the nations of the world. Finally, it suggested to many that the destiny of humanity rested in the cosmos rather than on Earth. Belief in that destiny, for all its elusiveness, has motivated tens of thousands of people over the last 50 years to invent the machines and instruments and chart the course for planetary exploration and, perhaps, migration.