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The 'Sputnik program' was a series of unmanned space missions launched by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s to demonstrate the viability of artificial satellites. It included Sputnik 1, the first man-made object to orbit earth.
The Russian name "Спутник" means literally "traveling companion" or "satellite". The R-7 launch vehicle was designed to carry nuclear warheads.

Contents

Impact

Early flights

Other Sputnik designations

Sputnik 40 and Sputnik 41

List of Sputnik satellites

References

Bibliography

See also

External links

Impact

The surprise launch of Sputnik 1, coupled with the spectacular failure of the United States' first two Project Vanguard launch attempts, shocked the United States, which responded with a number of early satellite launches, including Explorer I, Project SCORE, Advanced Research Projects Agency and Courier 1B. The Sputnik crisis also led to the creation of NASA and major increases in U.S. government spending on scientific research and education.
The launch of Sputnik 1 inspired writer Herb Caen to coin the term "''beatnik''" in an article about the Beat Generation in the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' on April 2, 1958.

Early flights

Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957. The satellite was 58 cm in diameter and weighed approximately 83.6 kg (about 184 lb).^[1] Each of its elliptical orbits around the Earth took about 96 minutes. (The first long range flight of the R-7 booster had occurred on August 21st of that year and the success was published in Aviation Week.)
Sputnik 2 was launched on November 3, 1957 and carried the first living passenger, a dog named Laika.
The mission planners did not provide for the safe return of the spacecraft or its passenger, making Laika the first orbital casualty.
This mission was promptly dubbed "Muttnick" by humorists.^[2]
The first attempt to launch Sputnik 3, on February 3, 1958, failed, but the second on May 15 succeeded, and it carried a large array of instruments for geophysical research.
Its tape recorder failed, however, making it unable to measure the Van Allen radiation belts.
Sputnik 4 was launched two years later, on May 15, 1960.
Sputnik 5 was launched on August 19, 1960 with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants on board. The spacecraft returned to earth the next day and all animals were recovered safely.

Other Sputnik designations

A variety of Venera, Vostok, Voskhod, Kosmos and other classes of Soviet spacecraft were referred to as Sputniks by American observers, although none of these were actually named "Sputnik" by the Soviet Union. Sputnik 25, for example, was an attempted Luna probe.

Sputnik 40 and Sputnik 41

Sputnik 40, also called Sputnik PS2, Radio Sputnik 17 (RS-17) and Mini-Sputnik, was a ⅓-scale model amateur radio satellite launched from the Mir space station on 3 November 1997 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Sputnik 1. The spacecraft body resembled Sputnik 1 and was built by students at the Polytechnic Laboratory of Nalchik in Kabardino-Balkaria. The transmitter was built by students from Jules Reydellet College in Réunion, with technical support from AMSAT-France. Its batteries expired on 29 December 1997 and the VHF transmitter fell silent.^[3][4][5] Its international designator is 1997-058C, United States Space Command object 24958.^[6]
Sputnik 41 (RS-18, designator 1998-62C, object 25533^[7]) was launched a year later, on 10 November 1998. It also carried a transmitter.

List of Sputnik satellites

Sputnik Program

Sputnik 1 Sputnik 2 Sputnik 3 Sputnik 4 Sputnik 5 Sputnik 6 Sputnik 7 Sputnik 8 Sputnik 9 Sputnik 10 Sputnik 11 Sputnik 12 Sputnik 13 Sputnik 14 Sputnik 15 Sputnik 16 Sputnik 17 Sputnik 18 Sputnik 19 Sputnik 20 Sputnik 21 Sputnik 22 Sputnik 24 Sputnik 25 Sputnik 26 Sputnik 27 Sputnik 28 Sputnik 29 Sputnik 30 Sputnik 31 Sputnik 32 Sputnik 33 Sputnik 34 Sputnik 35 Sputnik 36 Sputnik 37 Sputnik 38 Sputnik 39 Sputnik 40 Sputnik 41

References

1. M. Gruntman, '' Blazing the Trail: The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry'', AIAA, Reston, Va., 2004, ISBN 978-1-56347-705-8.
2. A Brief History of Animals in Space
3. Sputnik: First Artificial Satellite
4. Tiny Beeping Model Tossed From Station
5. Radio Sputnik 17
6. SPACEWARN Activities, SPX-529
7. SPACEWARN Activities, SPX-543

Bibliography

★ M. Gruntman, ''Blazing the Trail: The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry'', AIAA, Reston, Va., 2004, ISBN 978-1-56347-705-8.

See also

★ Soviet space program

★ Sergei Korolev: chief designer of Sputnik

★ Donald B. Gillies: one of the first to calculate the Sputnik I orbit.

★ Dickson, Paul, ''Sputnik: The Shock of the Century'', Walker & Company (June 26, 2007), ISBN 978-0802713650

External links

★ Sputnik: 50 Years Ago

★ Sputnik

★ Sputnik Program Page by NASA's Solar System Exploration

★ Diary of the Sputnik Programme