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How do we know Sputnik was in orbit?
Traveling at 18,000 miles an hour, its elliptical orbit had an apogee (farthest point from Earth) of 584 miles and a perigee (nearest point) of 143 miles. Visible with binoculars before sunrise or after sunset, Sputnik transmitted radio signals back to Earth strong enough to be picked up by amateur radio operators.
What did the US do in response to the launch of Sputnik?
On July 29, 1958, he signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, the creation of NASA. Less than a year after the Sputnik launch, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA). It was a four-year program that poured billions of dollars into the US education system.
Is Sputnik 1 still in orbit?
The signals continued for 21 days until the transmitter batteries ran out on 26 October 1957. Sputnik 1 burned up on 4 January 1958 while reentering Earth’s atmosphere, after three months, 1,440 completed orbits of the Earth, and a distance travelled of about 7.0×107 km (4.3×107 mi).
What was the purpose of the Sputnik 1?
Sputnik’s official designation was “PS-1” or “Elementary Satellite 1” in Russian. The satellite was launched from what is now called the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Oct. 4, 1957. The 184.3-pound (83.6 kg) craft’s primary function was to place a radio transmitter into orbit around the Earth.
Why was the launching of Sputnik so significant?
The USSR rocketed to the lead in the Cold War’s “Space Race” with the launch of Sputnik, a basketball-sized satellite that became the first manmade object to orbit the Earth. The launch of the first Sputnik signaled the opening salvo in another phase of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
How did the launch of Sputnik affect the American public 1 point?
Politically, Sputnik created a perception of American weakness, complacency, and a “missile gap,” which led to bitter accusations, resignations of key military figures, and contributed to the election of John F. Kennedy, who emphasized the space gap and the role of the Eisenhower-Nixon administration in creating it.
What did the Sputnik 1 satellite look like?
The Sputnik 1 satellite was a 58.0 cm-diameter aluminum sphere that carried four whip-like antennas that were 2.4-2.9 m long. The antennas looked like long “whiskers” pointing to one side.
What happened to Sputnik 1?
While it jolted the rest of the world, the successful launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, received casual treatment, at first, in Moscow. Korolev’s former colleague, Academician Boris Rauschenbakh, told me, some 35 years later, “Look up the pages of Pravda for the first day after the launch.
How did Sputnik 1 help in the detection of meteoroids?
Since the sphere was filled with nitrogen under pressure, Sputnik 1 provided the first opportunity for meteoroid detection (no such events were reported), since losses in internal pressure due to meteoroid penetration of the outer surface would have been evident in the temperature data.
What does Sputnik mean in Russian?
The Russian word “Sputnik” means “companion” (“satellite” in the astronomical sense). In 1885 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky first described in his book, Dreams of Earth and Sky, how such a satellite could be launched into a low altitude orbit.