'' (, "Satellite-1", byname '''ПС-1''' (''PS-1'', i.e. "Простейший Спутник-1", or ''Elementary Satellite-1'')) was the first
Artificial Satellite to be put into
Geocentric Orbit . Launched by the
Soviet Union on
4 October 1957 , it was the first satellite of the
Sputnik Program .
The satellite helped to identify the density of high
Atmospheric Layers by its orbit change and provided data on
Radio -signal distribution in the
Ionosphere . Because the satellite's body was filled with pressurized
Nitrogen , ''Sputnik 1'' also provided the first opportunity for
Meteorite detection, as losses in internal pressure due to meteoroid penetration of the outer surface would have been evident in the temperature data. The unanticipated announcement of ''Sputnik 1'''s success precipitated the
Sputnik Crisis in the
United States and ignited the so-called
Space Race within the
Cold War .
''Sputnik-1'' was set in motion during the
International Geophysical Year from the 5th
Tyuratam range in
Kazakh SSR (now
Baikonur Cosmodrome ). The satellite travelled at 29,000 kilometers (18,000 mi) per hour and emitted radio signals at around 20.005 and 40.002
MHz 1 which were received by scientists and
Ham Radio operators throughout the world. The signals continued for 22 days until the transmitter batteries ran out on
October 26 ,
1957 .
2 ''Sputnik 1'' burned as it fell from orbit upon reentering
Earth's Atmosphere , after traveling about 60 million km (37 million miles) in orbit.
The history of the ''Sputnik 1'' project dates back to , the head of the State Commission on
R-7 Rocket test launches, held a meeting where Korolev presented calculation data on the spacecraft to be sent to the Moon. They decided to develop a three-stage version of the R-7 rocket for satellite launches.
S. Vetrov, Korolev And His Job. Appendix 2 epizodsspace.testpilot.ru/bibl/vetrov/korolev-delo/06-01.html
On
January 30 1956 , the
Council Of Ministers Of The USSR approved practical work on an artificial satellite of the Earth. This satellite, named "Object D", was planned to be completed in 1957-58; it would have a mass of 1,000 to 1,400 kg (2,200 to 3,090 lbs) and would carry 200 to 300 kg (440 to 660 lbs.) of scientific instruments.
The Beginning The first test launch of "Object D" was scheduled for 1957. According to that decision, work on the satellite was divided between institutions as follows:
On the Launch of the First Earth's artificial satellite in the USSR by Nikolai Lidorenko
- USSR Academy Of Sciences was responsible for the general scientific leadership and research instruments supply
- Ministry of Defense Industry and its main executor OKB-1 were assigned a task of creating the satellite as a special carrier for scientific research instruments
- Ministry of Radiotechnical Industry should develop the control system, radiotechnical instruments and the Telemetry system
- Ministry of Ship Building Industry should develop Gyroscope devices
- Ministry of Machine Building should develop ground launching, refueling and transportation means
- Ministry of Defense was responsible for conducting launches
Unfortunately the complexity of the ambitious design and problems in following exact specifications meant that some parts of 'Object D' when delivered for assembly simply did not fit with the others causing costly delays. With the new R-7 launch vehicle design completed and fearing the U.S. would launch a satellite before the USSR, Korolev decided to postpone Object D and create a new satellite that was simple, light, and easy to construct that would forgo the complex, heavy scientific equipment in favour of a simple radio transmitter. Object D would later fly as Sputnik 3.
The Sputnik 1 satellite was a 585 mm (23 in) diameter sphere, made of highly polished 2 mm-thick
Aluminum AMG6T Alloy ,
3 carrying four whip-like antennas between 2.4 and 2.9 meters (7.9 and 9.5 ft.) in length. The antennas resembled long "whiskers" pointing to one side. It had two
Radio transmitters (20.005 and 40.002 MHz) and is believed to have orbited Earth at a height of about 250 km (150 mi). Analysis of the radio signals was used to gather information about the electron density of the ionosphere. Temperature and pressure were encoded in the duration of radio beeps, which additionally indicated that the satellite had not been punctured by a meteorite. Sputnik 1 was launched by an
R-7 Rocket . It burned up upon re-entry on
4 January 1958 . Sputnik was the start of the space race.
Sputnik was the first of several satellites in the . This was followed by one launch failure and then
Sputnik 3 , an orbiting physics laboratory.
s stamp, showing satellite's orbit.]]
The designers, engineers and technicians who developed the rocket and satellite were watching the launching at the research institutes and design bureaus the first artificial Earth satellite has been built".
4 The Sputnik 1 rocket booster also reached Earth orbit and was visible from the ground at night as a
First Magnitude object. The satellite itself, a small but highly polished sphere, was barely visible at sixth magnitude, and thus more difficult to follow optically. Several replicas of the Sputnik 1 satellite can be seen at museums in Russia, and others are on display in the Smithsonian
National Air And Space Museum in Washington, D.C. and the
Science Museum , London, England.
The actual sequence of decision-making as to the form of Sputnik 1 was convoluted. A tonne-and-a-half, cone-shaped artificial satellite capable of making many physics measurements in space was first planned by
Academician Mstislav Keldysh , but when the
Soviet s read that the American
Project Vanguard had two satellite designs, a small one which was just to see if they could get something into orbit, the Soviets decided to have what translates as the "Simplest Satellite" too, one which was one centimeter larger in diameter, and much heavier, than Vanguard's "real" satellite. They had to see whether the conditions in low Earth orbit would permit the bigger satellite to remain there for a useful length of time. When, months after Sputnik 1, the Vanguard test satellite was orbited,
Khrushchev ridiculed it as a "grapefruit." Once the Soviets found they could orbit a test satellite too, they planned to orbit Keldysh's space laboratory satellite as
Sputnik 3 , and did so after one launch failure.
'' issue.]]
Teams of visual observers at 150 stations in the United States and other countries were alerted during the night to watch for the Soviet sphere at dawn and evening twilight. They have been organized in Project Moonwatch to sight the satellite through binoculars or telescopes as it passes overhead.
6 The USSR asked radio amateurs and commercial stations to record the sound of the satellite on
Magnetic Tape .
The Soviet Union at first agreed to use equipment "compatible" with that of the United States, but then announced the lower frequencies. The
White House declined to comment on military aspects of the launching, but said it "did not come as a surprise."
7 On October 5 the Naval Research Laboratory announced it had recorded four crossings of ''Sputnik-1'' over the United States.
U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower obtained photographs of the Soviet facilities from
Lockheed U-2 flights conducting since 1956.
8 However everyone on
Johnston Island in the
Pacific were issued
Sidearms to carry at all times.
Long-standing official accounts state that, based on the degradation of Sputnik 1's orbit, the satellite re-entered the atmosphere on or about January 4th, 1958, whereupon it is assumed to have burned up completely. The Sputnik 1 rocket booster re-entry was expected to occur somewhere above Alaska, or the West coast of North America, according to Soviet predictions in December 1957. http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ/MGArticle/WSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149193257486
However, in light of recent evidence, certain (primarily structural) components may have survived : Per recent news reports, on the morning of December 8th, 1957, Earl Thomas of
Encino , California, was leaving his home to go to work, when he noticed something glowing beneath a tree in his back yard. The source turned out to be several pieces of plastic tubing, which upon investigation, matched structural diagrams of the Sputnik 1 satellite. A local Los Angeles radio DJ, Mark Ford of KDAY Radio, was at the same time offering a $50,000 reward for anyone who had found Sputnik, which reportedly had gone down in the L.A. area. When Thomas tried to claim the reward, he was met by a representative of the United States Air Force, who received the pieces Thomas found, and wrote a receipt on Air Force stationery. Later, after the radio station denied having offered a reward, Thomas brought the receipt back to the Air Force, where the sergeant on duty gave the pieces back to Thomas. The family wrote to government officials at all levels in an attempt to collect the reward, but were told that the government had not offered a reward. Of particular interest, however, was a reply from Colonel W.G. Woodbury of the Air Force, which includes the statement "At the time you recovered the Sputnik parts..." Currently, the disputed parts are in the possession of Bob Morgan, Thomas' son. An exhibit about the parts is currently on display at
The Beat Museum , in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco.
''HAVE THE BEATNIKS FOUND SPUTNIK?'' The Beat Museum in North Beach
- The first man made object to reach space was launched over 10 years before ''Sputnik 1''. In 1944, a V2 Rocket was launched from Peenemünde on a vertical test shot Sub-orbital Trajectory to an altitude of 176 km (109 miles), well beyond the 100 km (62 miles) altitude generally considered to be the border of space (see Kármán Line ). 9
- The previous altitude record before the V-2 was held by the artillery shells of the Paris Gun , the first artificial object to enter the stratosphere with an Apogee of approximately 30 miles.
One ''Sputnik 1'' replica, built by French and Russian teenagers and hand-launched from
Mir on
November 3 ,
1997 , died after two months in orbit.
In
2003 a back-up unit of Sputnik 1 called "model PS-1" was sold on
EBay (minus the classified military radio parts that were removed in the 1960s). It had been on display in a science institute near
Kiev . It is estimated that between four and twenty models were made for testing and other purposes.
A Sputnik 1 model was given as a present to the
United Nations and now decorates the entry Hall of its
New York City Headquarters.
Another replica is on display at the Smithsonian's
National Air And Space Museum .
A further replica is on display in the Space section of the
Science Museum, London .
This Russian page contains signals which are probably the faster pulsations from Sputnik-2:
A NASA history website on Sputnik contains this commonly copied recording, which is some pulse-duration-modulated signal of an unknown spacecraft:
