It was 50 years ago […] the Russians launched Sputnik, the first man made satellite to orbit the earth. It changed the world. In fact, there are few, if any events of the last 50 years that had such a global impact on just about every aspect of humanity. I can still remember the night that, as a young boy standing in the front yard with my parents; we looked up at the starry sky waiting for Sputnik. There it was, a slow man-made star moving across the sky. We listened to its beeping on the radio. It filled me with wonder. I did not see it as Russian but rather as man made, that we humans had done this. The phrase The skys the limit was now a phrase of the past. This was space!
Quoted from www.evolutionshift.com

“Little More than a Beeping Metal”

Photo via usatoday.com

Fifty years ago […] the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I — little more than a beeping metal ball — into space. Never before had an artificial object orbited the Earth.

That achievement on Oct. 4, 1957, stunned and alarmed America. It also triggered an epic space race between the world’s superpowers that would culminate nearly 12 years later, when Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. The Soviets never made it there.

“Sputnik I changed the world,” NASA administrator Michael Griffin says. “It changed history.”
Quoted from usatoday.com

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Announcement of the Launching of Sputnik.mp3
Radio Moscow

via bacik.org

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Today is the first day of “World Space Week“

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Image via spaceports

According to Wikipedia, “World Space Week is an annual observance held from October 4 to October 10 established by the United Nations General Assembly to be an international celebration of science and technology and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition. World Space Week is coordinated by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs with the support of World Space Week Association, a non-government organization.

The start and end dates of World Space Week recognize the launch of the first human-made Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957; and the signing of the Outer Space Treaty on October 10, 1967.”

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Russian Space Race Begins : Sputnik 1

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTs4_aKw3EU[/youtube]

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Sputnik Links (worth to visit)

• Sputnik Anniversary : Graphic Representation of Sputnik (Nice video from jumpcut.com)
• Sputnik Video Clips (Youtube)
• Sputnik Program (Wikipedia Article)
• Internet Started Here 50 Years Ago
• Sputnik and the Big 5-0 (Article)
• Image of Sputnik Satellite (1 Image)
• Sputnik Anniversary Marks 50 Years of Space Race (PBS Article)