Satellite from which the space race began

Satellite from which the space race began

60 years ago the USSR sent the first space satellite - a small silver ball with four spider antennas.

About 60 years ago, Soviet scientists sent the first artificial device into space. From that moment began the space race between the USSR and the USA.

The satellite was a small silver ball with four leg antennas, which managed to show all the advancement of Soviet science. But in reality, the great contribution was made by German scientists brought into the country after the victory over Hitler.

Sergei Korolev, the founder of the Soviet space program, collaborated with German researchers and used the FAU rocket to create a new rocket. His bureau was supposed to launch an intercontinental rocket capable of transporting a hydrogen bomb to any point on Earth.

Korolev spent 6 years of his life in a gulag and dreamed of space conquest. But the problem was that one of the advanced German scientists Werner von Braun was already working for the Americans. In 1957, Korolev conducts a successful test, hitting the target in Kamchatka. To create a new rocket takes 6 months. But it was too long, as the USSR dreamed of getting ahead of the USA in launching the first satellite. Then they decide to create an empty sphere of two hemispheres with sensors, radio and battery.

It turns out that after 2 months a device appears with a diameter of 58 cm and a weight of 63.8 kg.

Tiny dot

Although Sputnik attracted the attention of the whole world, for the inventors themselves - it was a secondary device.

It was more important for scientists to test the speed of an R-7 rocket. The project was shrouded in mystery and many learned about its existence only on October 4, 1957, that is, on the launch day from the Baikonur cosmodrome.

The satellite lasted 92 days in orbit and performed 1,440 sorties around the planet. After that, lost speed and burned in the atmosphere. At the launch event there were few people who noticed how a small dot rises into the sky. Only at 3 o'clock in the morning the whole world received the news that Sputnik was in orbit.

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