On 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union lofted Sputnik 1 — a polished metal sphere with radio beeps — into orbit, launching the space age and the first human-made moon.
It circled Earth about every 96 minutes before its batteries died and it later burned up on reentry. The beep was simple, but the message was global: space was open.
Every GPS bird and weather satellite sits in Sputnik’s shadow. One small sphere turned orbit from theory into a crowded working layer above our heads.
Shahzad Mahota
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite
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