Does anyone remember Sputnik?

[Twinkles6892]

Part a school assignment I have is to interview someone who remember's when Sputnick went up. I could call my grandparents, but I felt like coming to my DIS family for this one.

I just need to know if you remember where you were, how it's launch was important, did it change your normal day to day life? and how old you were.

Thanks!
~Megan

 

[KarenC]

Can't really help you, Sputnick went up the day my husband was born: October 4, 1957. I was born two years later. I think it was one of those events that make an impression because every time my husband mentions that he was born the day the space race started, people who are older remember what they were doing on that day.

 

[Twinkles6892]

Yeah, our science teacher said that it would be like someone asking us in 60 years where we were on 9/11...

 

[Pin Wizard]

I'm glad you know the date, Karen. I was wondering how something went up and I had no clue at all about it. Prior to my time also!

 

[Twinkles6892]

Bump

 

[cfh]

that's my birthday as well. i also tell people about sputnik and they just look at me....and say "oh!" you might want to see the movie October Sky or read Rocket Boys, which the movie was based on, as the story takes place at the beginning of the space race.

 

[buckylarue]

I had just started 1st grade a month before Sputnik launched. I remember going out into the yard with my Dad and watching as it went over in the evening sky. When Sputnik 2 launched a month later with the dog on board, we would go out and wave to it...
It wasn't like satellites nowadays, which are mainly up in geosynchronus orbit at 22,500 miles above the Earth; the early sattelites orbited at around 100-300 miles up and would reflect the sun in the twilight sky as they passed overhead. My Dad was in telecommunications, and was very intertested in the possible applications of satellites to the industry, so the launch of Echo 1 in 1960 was a much bigger event to us. It was the first satellite used to bounce communications signals from one spot on earth to another. Hard to believe that now I get several hundred channels of digital TV via a platter-sized dish on my garage!

 

[GeorgeG]

Well, Megan, I guess I'll have to admit I'm old enough to remember Sputnik. It was the first space capsul launched by Russia (Soviet Union) back in the days when the "Cold War" was in full swing. I think it was the early to mid 60's.

If I remember correctly, the "Cosmonaut" riding Sputnik was a dog. Sputnik was significant back then since there was a "Space Race" going on between the United States and Russia and there was some fear that the country that conquered space first would rule the world. As we all know, both countries managed to establish successful space programs and neither has yet managed to rule the world.

Hope this helps...

George

 

[Dan Murphy]

I recall it well, and as much as we were amazed by the achievement, we were also frightened by the ominous thoughts conjured over it. As above, I recall standing outside, watching the pinpoint of light go across the sky, very scared. We listened to the sound http://www.amsat.org/amsat/features/sounds/sputnk1b.wav on the news. As primitive as that seems today, it was like a miracle almost 50 years ago. Amazing how far we have come in those few short years, in so many ways. What a different world we live in today.

If you need any more thoughts, just send me a pm or email.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I was 10 years old, and it was a BIG deal to us in school. Weekly Reader must have had stories about it for an entire year! It was almost a fantastic story. We kept wondering how anything could survive space like that. When you look at it now, it doesn't seem any more fantastic than airline flight, but it was pretty far out then! When they sent up chimps and dogs, we were Sure they would come back dead!

 

[DawnCt1]

I had a gray Sputnik balloon with antennae that stuck to the outside of it. That is all I remember.

 

[NMAmy]

I wasn't born at the time but my grandmother had a cat named Sputnik. She got her right after it was launched and she said the kitten raced around the house like Sputnik raced around the world.

That was the meanest cat ever! But thanks for a nice memory of my grandma. I remember her explaining all about Sputnik.

 

[Rokkitsci]

I must be the oldest guy around.

I was in College at LSU when Sputnik was launched. I remember it was close to my birthday in October, 1957.

Sputnik was the name given to the first satellite. It had no person nor animal onboard - just a radio transmitter than sent out beeps. The Sputnik was about the size of a basketball with four antennae protruding from its surface.

I was an engineering student at LSU at the time and it made quite an impression on all of us. It is one of the things that made me want to work in the aerospace industry. Everyone wanted to "catch up with" the Soviets.

The fact that the Soviets had beaten us so badly caused the entire nation to gear up its scientific base. The government poured money into anything technical. Young people were flocking to Engineering Schools. It was a great time to be alive.

By the way, the last I heard, it was still up there. It was in such a stable orbit that it continues to operate beep beep beep beep beep . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Soviets did not think to put in a provision to make it stop beeping. So it continues - on and on - (I have not heard anything about it in several years - but the last I did hear, it was still healthy and beeping away.)

 

[shoes99]

October 4, 1957
My husband was in the 7th grade at Ocean Township middle school in New Jersey.
Directly across the street from the school, Bell Labs had a tracking station, in a large field with a lot of radio towers.
Helicopters started to land in the field.
The teacher, Mr. Hulley, stopped the class and said , "I don't know what is going on, but I think you kids are witnessing some kind of history".
Then the class found out later that the Russians launched the Sputnick.

PS: My husband Milton loves telling that story.