Sputnik And The Space Age Turn 50
MOSCOW (Reuters) – World space chiefs on Thursday celebrated 50 years since the launch of Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, which marked the start of the space age.
People across the planet gasped in 1957 when the Soviet Union fired the 87-kg (180-pound) Sputnik into orbit and took the lead in the Cold War space race with the U.S.
“I am convinced that the Sputnik accomplishment by the Russian people was responsible for the creation of the American space program that I head today,” NASA administrator Michael Griffin told space veterans at Russia’s Academy of Science.
The ceremony was one of a number commemorating the Sputnik anniversary in Russia. Earlier, military officials laid flowers at the Kremlin Wall grave of Sputnik mastermind Sergei Korolyov.
“Without Sputnik there would have been no Apollo. Indeed when the space race of the 1960s was over, it may be said that we in America lost some of our own momentum,” said Griffin, referring to the Apollo project, which put a man on the moon in 1969.
The world would be very different today without the satellites that followed on from Sputnik and now ensure communications, help people find directions, spy on foes and track the weather across the globe.
Although it would dictate the course of his life, top Russian top space scientist Alexander Basilevsky recalled being too busy celebrating his 20th birthday at a scientific camp in Siberia to be impressed when Sputnik beeped a signal to earth.
He saw no practical use for it.
“Of course we were drinking some vodka and singing, but when I heard this on the radio, I wasn’t interested at all,” he said.
Enjoying his 70th birthday, Basilevsky explained how he spent the rest of his working life studying planetary surfaces.
He helped pick the location for Russian robotic lunar landings in the 1960s and is now working on Russia’s 2009 mission to the Martian moon of Phobos, the country’s first major space project in over a decade.
