Launch of Sputnik 1 - October 4, 1957

[pearbook19]

look left -----> you failed

[1949kf]

The Russians used their captured WW2 German technology more effectively than did the US in the early years of the space race. Their Germans beat our Germans because a bunch of morons directing US space policy didn't want to use the German rocket team designed rockets but instead used the Vanguaud which blew up on the launch pad. It wasn't until Von Brauns rocket team were allowed to do their thing that we were able to get into space and to the Moon. As a thanks they deported Arthur Rudolph.

[Spruci3]

@OBSysteme One good example of this would be the millions of Dollars the US invested in designing a pen which would work in the zero-gravity of space. The USSR just used a pencil :)

[Nickynick97]

What did they use Sputnik fore?

[Mad69sur]

What for was the radio signal? just to show the world it was truly up there?

[ConsciousAtoms]

@Mad69sur That was one of its reasons, but not the only one. Simple telemetry signals (IIRC, the temperature inside the spacecraft) were encoded in the beeps.

[AroundSun]

Is this the guy that does Forensic Files???

[krenim786]

take a bow sergei korlov !

never in human history has so much been owed by so many to ONE MAN!

[the0th]

russians had no money for safety testing and budget. they were still recovering from ww2. so they had to just try and get things right first time of asking.

[JoelProductions1]

Я люблю Спутник 1!!! (I love the Sputnik 1!!!) I'm learning Russian at my school.

P.S: I didn't use Google Translate or anything related to that!

[kalinga01]

although ahead of the US at that time, many of you people don't realize how horribly inadequate the Soviet space program was. They built vehicles with little concern for structural safety, and often resulted in deadly failures. In fact, the man who designed the first Soviet space suit did not even know that there was no air in space!

[Krazycat2579]

first little satelite in space

[AroundSun]

@Krazycat2579 Is this the first thing in space ever?

[Krazycat2579]

@AroundSun yeah it is

[ConsciousAtoms]

@AroundSun Depends what you mean by "in space". This was the first man-made thing in orbit. An early V-2 rocket test, from Germany during WW2, was the first man-made object that flew (fbriefly) out of the earth's atmosphere.

[AroundSun]

@ConsciousAtoms is this the guy that does forensic files?? lol

[ColeChannel]

i think the russians just launched this to jam our radios and mess us up

[mcgge7]

woopdy fucking do, it's cool but not very usefull

[idahotools]

@mcgge7 do you even know what a satellite even does?!

[holicat098]

viva gagarin!

[YOURLEFTELBOW]

Anyone else here from Mr. Smith's class? haha

[serbin16m]

When the Americans went into space they noticed their pens did not work because of the lack of gravity so they spent millions into designing a pen that would work in space, when it came to the Russians they just took a pencil.

[krisish00d]

@serbin16m legend, proven false on snopes

[utaMAN12345]

@xXPizzacakeXx no, but they are the first to send a man into space!

[whereswaldo22]

Speachless

[biketouristpodcast]

Actually, they were building another satellite for this launch; Object D. There were big problems with hardware module integration. When the date for the U.S. launch of the Explorer 1 came close, they just decided to put this ball with only a transmitter, just to beat the U.S. on being the first. But the Explorer 1, with all its new solid state technology (transistors) was able to accomodate a good number of instruments on board, that helped discover the Van Allen radiation belt. More efficient.

[Aqwert76]

in soviet russia, space age enters humanity

[TheOutlawWeasel]

man the beginning is so ominous... like an episode of '24' or something...

[enjoixander]

Now that the Earth is warming up forget about the Cold War!

[killerofnothing1]

@2bpilot Indeed, the Cold War did more good than bad.

[crysis888]

Too boldly go where no man has gone before.........

Sorry for the Star Trek reference it just seem fitting ;)

[gir489]

The Soviet Union gave out several of their Sputnik copies. It's possible the CIA has a copy. There was 10 "backup" units created. They only needed one, since it was a successful launch and activation.

But the original Sputnik had crashed into earth after it orbited a few times. The orbital decay wasn't thought of at the time, since nothing man-made had gone out that far/

[mza131313]

i heard that the CIA has one of the sputniks is that ture?

[birudagmawi1]

no...

[theyear3001]

but the Kansas cosmosphere and space center has all three

[AvroRL201]

They can't, all the stalites burned up

[theyear3001]

yes they can, they have the ones made in case the launch failed and they had to re-launch. the ones that the cosmosphere has have not been up into space.

-praise lakia-

[benderrocks01]

full price !

[DonPMitchell]

The footage is actaully the launch of Sputnik 2. Sputnik-1 was launched around midnight local time.

[rukieishere]

Russians Rock

[vampireheart301]

not just any russians,

the communists!

[cdy72]

true

[327372]

indeed...its amazing how advanced the russians were compared to USA. soviets were very smart, as their strategy of scaring USA into spending billions into a space program worked effectively.

[hekesuede]

The Russians were smart, always have been, and always will be. However it was all those captured German scientists that gave them the edge in space rocketry. I was acquainted with one such surviving scientist who was a PHD at the age of 18. That was nearly twenty years ago though.

[peacemaker083]

@hekesuede intelligence has nothing to do with what country you're from or your ethnicity.

[Kingfordian22]

@327372

To be honest, I think the Russians have a better space program than the US has. It's high quality and while it may be using older technology for operations, the Soyuz is very reliable as opposed to the Space Shuttle

[Sputnik966]

@Kingfordian22 no, the American space programs are just slower...like Forrest Gump.

[OBSysteme]

@Kingfordian22 I would be interested how economically efficient their program is... like their military equipment, does the work, has endurance, and is cheap....

[jetfreak4]

@Kingfordian22 Maybe so, but it was far less reliable than the Apollo rockets.

[mcgge7]

@327372 i hope you know the reason the ussr fell was because the usa did the same thing by outspending them:) what a great triumph for all of america:)

[327372]

@mcgge7 indeed! the usa got the soviets into their own vietnam war which was the invasion of afghanistan. the soviets were defeated and outspent. and ive done an essay on this. the space war is directly responsible for many great things in america like NASA, internet, education reform, etc

[mcgge7]

@327372 yeah, i recently did a project for my world history class on the space race and we got a 100, lol. but also the united states trained sadam hussein a.k.a (So Damn Insane) and provided weapons to help fight off the soviets, which obviously backfired:(

[327372]

@mcgge7 not just saddam hussein, but cia also armed the mujahideen in afghanistan, which later became the taliban, which again backfired on us lol.