SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the earth’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik I. The successful launch came as a shock to experts and citizens in the United States, who had hoped that the United States would accomplish this scientific advancement first.

Detailed explanation-2: -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. On October 4, 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth.

Detailed explanation-3: -Sputnik, any of a series of three artificial Earth satellites, the first of whose launch by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, inaugurated the space age.

Detailed explanation-4: -On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik-1, the world’s first artificial satellite. Only about the size of a beach ball (22.8 inches or 58 cm. in diameter) and weighing 183.9 pounds (83.6 kg), it orbited the Earth in around 98 minutes.

Detailed explanation-5: -The Sputnik 1 spacecraft was the first artificial satellite successfully placed in orbit around the Earth and was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome at Tyuratam (370 km southwest of the small town of Baikonur) in Kazakhstan, then part of the former Soviet Union.

Detailed explanation-6: -Officially, Sputnik was launched to correspond with the International Geophysical Year, a solar period that the International Council of Scientific Unions declared would be ideal for the launching of artificial satellites to study Earth and the solar system.