50th Anniversary of Sputnik
The World's First Artificial Satellite was Launched by Russia
October 4, 2007 marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik by the USSR in 1957.
Tomorrow, the Russian Ambassador heads to the Whitehouse in Washington, D.C. to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, the artificial satellite that also launched the space race between the United States and the USSR. The Russian Ambassador was originaly scheduled to visit Dayton (according to sources), the home of the Wright Brothers and an historical center for major air and space research.
As it stands, Dayton will still celebrate with an event called "From the Wrigh Brothers to Sputnik and Beyond," which will feature both American and Russian engineering and space experts as speakers and guests.
According to NASA, Sputnik was only about the size of a basketball. This breakthrough event, while an enormous feat for the USSR, can tell us how rudimentary space exploration was at its beginnings. The satellite was able to transmit some information but carried no experiments. The USSR would later send a dog into space, which really doesn't seem like too exciting of a feat either.
(On a side note, my grandfather had a cat named Sputnik, but as far as I know he was never sent into space. According to my Russian dictionary, "sputnik" can be translated as 'traveling companion." As I recall, this was a very appropriate name for this cat, who would follow you anywhere.)
