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Sputnik

The first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1 1,2,3, was launched by Russia on 4 October 1957. Sputnik was an 84-kg, 58-cm sphere launched into an orbit between 231 km and 942 km. Although not used directly for satellite communications, Sputnik transmitted telemetry information for 21 days on 20.005 MHz and 40.002 MHz 4,5 until its batteries were exhausted. The spacecraft itself remained in orbit for nearly three months. Atmospheric drag gradually lowered its perigee until it re-entered the atmosphere and burned up on 4 January 1958.

Notes

  1. Staff of the Jodrell Bank Experimental Station, “Radar Observations of the First Russian Earth Satellite and Carrier Rocket,” Nature, vol. 180, 9 Nov 1957, pp. 941–942. back
  2. Staff of the Jodrell Bank Experimental Station, “Orbit of the Artificial Earth Satellite,” Nature, vol. 180, 19 Oct 1957, p. 784. back
  3. Staff of the Jodrell Bank Experimental Station, “The Artificial Earth Satellite: Observations at Jodrell Bank,” Nature, vol. 180, 2 Nov 1957, p. 890. back
  4. Brown, R. R., P. E. Green, Jr., B. Howland, R. M. Lerner, R. Manasse, and G. Pettengill, “Radio Observations of the Russian Earth Satellite,” Proceedings of the IRE, vol. 45, Nov 1957, pp. 1552–1553. back
  5. Peterson, A. H., and Staff, “Radio and Radar Tracking of the Russian Earth Satellite,” Proceedings of the IRE, vol. 45, Nov 1957, pp. 1553–1555. back