Sputnik 1 launched, opening the Space Age

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, from the Tyuratam range in Kazakhstan. A polished metal sphere just 58 centimeters across, it carried four trailing antennas and circled the Earth roughly once every 96 minutes.

Sputnik did little but broadcast a steady radio beep, audible to ham operators worldwide, for about three weeks until its batteries died. Yet that simple signal landed like a thunderclap. A communist rival had reached orbit first, and the same rockets could in principle deliver warheads.

The launch jolted the United States into action, spurring the creation of NASA in 1958 and a surge of investment in science education and missile research.

A 23-inch metal ball did more to start the space race than any speech.

Sputnik fell back into the atmosphere and burned up on January 4, 1958, but the era it opened—of satellites, spy craft, and eventually human spaceflight—was only beginning.