© Mark Ollig
In 1952, the International Council of Scientific Unions proposed the Internal Geophysical Year (IGY) to be recognized from July 1957 to December 1958.
Scientists worldwide planned on observing geophysical phenomena and their effects on Earth.
Two countries had much bolder IGY plans, which were literally “out of this world.”
The US announced it would place a scientific satellite into Earth’s orbit during the IGY.
The Soviet Union also announced its plans for launching an Earth-orbiting artificial satellite.
A historical event occurred Friday, Oct. 4, 1957, which caused the world to take a collective breath and look upward at the night sky.
At 10:29 p.m., Moscow Standard Time (2:29 p.m. Central Time), a Soviet R-7 two-stage rocket weighing 267 tons, lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch complex in the remote Russian region of Tyuratam, inside the Kazakhstan Republic.
The R-7 was a Russian/Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile without the military warhead attachment.
Instead of a warhead, the rocket carried a 184-pound satellite payload called PS-1, better known as Sputnik 1.
Sputnik 1 was a highly-polished 23-inch diameter metallic beach ball-sized sphere made of an aluminum-magnesium-titanium combination.
According to the English Oxford dictionary, “In Russian, the word sputnik means a ‘traveling companion.’”
The Sputnik 1 satellite was jettisoned from the R-7 at about 142 miles above the Earth in the weightlessness of space.
Sputnik 1 then settled into an elliptical orbit, circling Earth once every 98 minutes at a speed of 18,000 mph.
A 1-watt radio transmitter was powered from two of three onboard silver-zinc batteries. The Sputnik 1 satellite used a third battery to power its internal temperature and other instrument systems.
The first artificially-made, Earth-orbiting satellite sent out a curious radio signal from its four “cat-whisker” antennas extending 7.9 and 9.5 feet, respectively.
For the next three weeks, people worldwide became fixated, listening to the steady radio signal audio pattern of “beep-beep-beep-beep-beep” being transmitted down through the Earth’s atmosphere by Sputnik 1.
Scientists and shortwave radio operators closely listened to Sputnik’s 20.005 and 40.002 MHz frequency radio band transmissions.
American television and radio broadcast the satellite’s beeps for the general public to hear.
Ground-based telescopes could see the small, shining metallic sphere as it speedily flew across the night sky.
People peering up into the star-filled night sky saw a small, bright sunlit ball, Sputnik 1, majestically passing by.
While Sputnik 1 orbited the planet and sent its radio beeps, American emotions ranged from shock and amazement to feelings of inspiration by witnessing the start of space exploration.
However, many people also feared the Soviet Union would turn soviet satellites into space weapons.
Instead of a harmless beeping satellite passing over the US, some folks felt the next Sputnik would be carrying a nuclear warhead that the Soviet Union could drop on them.
There was real fear, confusion, and much anxiety experienced by many Americans.
I once asked my mother about her memories of Oct. 4, 1957, and Sputnik 1.
“I was 27 years old,” she recalled. “I remember people were frightened; we didn’t know whether the Russians were going to attack us by dropping bombs from their space satellites passing over our heads,” she explained to me.
In an attempt to ease a growing US public anxiety, Oct. 9, 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower announced, “Now, so far as the satellite itself is concerned, that does not raise my apprehensions, not one iota. I see nothing at this moment, at this stage of development, that is significant in that development as far as security is concerned.”
President Eisenhower, or “Ike,” may have calmed the fears of some folks; however, many now felt that the Soviet Union had taken the technological lead in the new “space race” with the US.
Starting Oct. 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 continued to broadcast beeps until Oct. 26, 1957, when the satellite’s battery power wholly drained.
Sputnik 1 burned up Jan. 4, 1958, while re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
Two months after Sputnik 1, the US attempted to launch a satellite into Earth orbit atop a three-stage Vanguard rocket.
At the Atlantic Missile range in Cape Canaveral, FL, the Vanguard rocket ignited and began its ascent Dec. 5, 1957; however, after rising a little more than 3 feet, the rocket stalled, then settled back on the launch pad as its fuel tanks ruptured and exploded. The irony is that the Vanguard satellite was thrown clear of the explosion and landed on the ground. Although damaged, the satellite transmitted its beacon signal while lying on the ground.
The first successful launch of a US satellite into Earth orbit occurred Jan. 31, 1958 at 9:48 p.m. Central Time, with Explorer 1.
Explorer 1 used a modified US Redstone ballistic missile to obtain the altitude needed for orbit.
Explorer 1 descended into the Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated in the heat of re-entry March 31, 1970.
One minute of recorded radio signal beeps from Sputnik 1 can be listened to at http://bit.ly/2fwmc6P.
Listen to 10 seconds of telemetry transmission from Sputnik 1 at https://go.nasa.gov/2whXCtp.
The world looked up into the night sky Oct. 4, 1957, in wonderment and apprehension.
