On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth. The roughly 84-kilogram aluminum sphere, about the size of a beach ball, was lifted by a modified intercontinental ballistic missile from a launch site in what is now Kazakhstan. It circled the planet in about 96 minutes and sent back a steady radio beep that anyone with a shortwave receiver could pick up.
The beeping mattered more than the hardware. Sputnik showed that the Soviets could put something into orbit before the United States did, which set off alarm in Washington and kicked the space race into high gear. It also gave scientists their first real look at the upper atmosphere from space, since its signal and orbit revealed how dense the air was at high altitude. Within a few months the U.S. had created NASA, and the satellite era had officially begun.
Also on this day: Sputnik 1 stayed in orbit for about three months before reentering the atmosphere in January 1958.
Source: Wikipedia: Sputnik 1; Westport Tech Museum: Today in Tech History, October 4, 1957
Daily Tech History is a running series looking back at notable moments in technology on this date.
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