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KF5JRV > TODAY 19.10.19 18:51l 46 Lines 2543 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 15656_KF5JRV
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Subj: Today in History - Oct 04
Path: IW8PGT<HB9ON<IK7NXU<IK6IHL<IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<N3HYM<KF5JRV
Sent: 191004/1141Z 15656@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQK6.0.18
The Soviet Union inaugurates the “Space Ageö with its launch of Sputnik,
the world’s first artificial satellite. The spacecraft, named Sputnik
after the Russian word for “satellite,ö was launched at 10:29 p.m.
Moscow time from the Tyuratam launch base in the Kazakh Republic.
Sputnik had a diameter of 22 inches and weighed 184 pounds and circled
Earth once every hour and 36 minutes. Traveling at 18,000 miles an hour,
its elliptical orbit had an apogee (farthest point from Earth) of 584
miles and a perigee (nearest point) of 143 miles. Visible with
binoculars before sunrise or after sunset, Sputnik transmitted radio
signals back to Earth strong enough to be picked up by amateur radio
operators. Those in the United States with access to such equipment
tuned in and listened in awe as the beeping Soviet spacecraft passed
over America several times a day. In January 1958, Sputnik’s orbit
deteriorated, as expected, and the spacecraft burned up in the
atmosphere.
Officially, Sputnik was launched to correspond with the International
Geophysical Year, a solar period that the International Council of
Scientific Unions declared would be ideal for the launching of
artificial satellites to study Earth and the solar system. However, many
Americans feared more sinister uses of the Soviets’ new rocket and
satellite technology, which was apparently strides ahead of the U.S.
space effort. Sputnik was some 10 times the size of the first planned
U.S. satellite, which was not scheduled to be launched until the next
year. The U.S. government, military, and scientific community were
caught off guard by the Soviet technological achievement, and their
united efforts to catch up with the Soviets heralded the beginning of
the “space race.ö
The first U.S. satellite, Explorer, was launched on January 31, 1958. By
then, the Soviets had already achieved another ideological victory when
they launched a dog into orbit aboard Sputnik 2. The Soviet space
program went on to achieve a series of other space firsts in the late
1950s and early 1960s: first man in space, first woman, first three men,
first space walk, first spacecraft to impact the moon, first to orbit
the moon, first to impact Venus, and first craft to soft-land on the
moon. However, the United States took a giant leap ahead in the space
race in the late ’60s with the Apollo lunar-landing program, which
successfully landed two Apollo 11 astronauts on the surface of the moon
in July 1969.
73, Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV @ KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
Email: KF5JRV@GMAIL.com
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