Earlier today I wrote my article on the 60th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1. I wasn’t quite happy with how it turned out, and thought more about it – what I really wanted to say with it. That’s when I realized it wasn’t the fact that it launched that I wanted to convey, but just how important the event actually was.
The launch of Sputnik 1 made true a dream humanity has had for ages – to leave the planet in some way, and explore. Sputnik was primitive, yes, but it proved that we, in 1957, for the first time, had a successful method to escape the planets surface and enter space.
The effort it took to get it in orbit – to get anything in orbit – and the push of technology the Space Race created is in some ways indescribable.
Sputnik 1 would be followed up by thousands of other satellites, many of which we are using today, even right now in some way or another certainly. Hell, your phone, if GPS is enabled, is reading a signal from a small cluster of satellites (the Global Positioning System) to identify quite accurately where on Earth it is.
Humans traveling into space, walking on the Moon’s surface, and incredible machines like the International Space Station, all directly originate from the fact that Sputnik 1 was launched. Materials and other technologies we use daily were also spawned by the exploration of space, which was sparked by the events of that one October morning in 1957.
Sure, it eventually would have happened. It could have been anything launched. Hell, the United States could have been the first had we done one test launch differently a year beforehand, but we didn’t – the Soviet Union did, and they did it well.
I don’t know, maybe I can’t explain it right, but it’s amazing to think what that relatively small metal sphere beeping up there 60 years ago tonight would be followed up with…
For some more reading on Sputnik 1, check out this article series on Russian Space Web. The story of it’s launch itself is rather fascinating!