On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the satellite that started the Space Race.
Sputnik 1 was the first human-made object to orbit the Earth, and it set off a wave of fear and anxiety across the U.S. now known as the "Sputnik crisis." Sputnik was a metal sphere roughly 2 feet (58 cm) in diameter with four long radio antennas. These antennas transmitted little beeping pulses down to Earth that even amateur radio operators could hear.
The satellite spent 21 days in orbit before it burned up in Earth's atmosphere.
Why it mattered
The launch of Sputnik 1 changed the world for ever, kicking of a new Space Age and a Space Race of one upsmanship that ultimately led to the creation of NASA and the landing of American astronauts on the moon on the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.
The small satellite (it was about the size of a beach ball) took 98 minutes to orbit the Earth and weighed just 184 pounds (nearly 84 kg). But despite its relativity diminutive size, it was already larger than the 3.5-pound payload the United States hoped to launch with the first Vanguard rocket launch (which ultimately failed on Dec. 6, 1957).
Sputnik 1 surprised the world, and U.S. officials in particular, becuase of fears that Soviet rocket technology could be adapted into ballistic missiles to threaten other countries.
And Sputnik 1 wasn't alone. A month later, on Nov. 3, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, which sent the dog Laika into space as the first living creature in orbit. The first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, would not launch until Jan. 31, 1958.
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