All Hail The Birth Of Space Junk…Kind Of

On this date in 1957, we disturbed the peace of our atmosphere, not to mention space itself, for the very first time. I really shouldn’t say “we” because it was the Soviet Union. Have you put the pieces together yet? Yep, it was the day that Russia successfully launched Sputnik (which loosely translated means ‘take that you American capitalist pigs’).

The launch sent shockwaves throughout the world. The Americans were caught sleeping, most likely because of the time difference, but that’s not the point. America would not be ready to launch a satellite until the following year and had to play catch up. When President Eisenhower questioned the military and our finest scientists, the only explanation they had was “um…oops…didn’t see that coming…sir.”

Sputnik orbited for a few months and could be heard on amateur radios in the United States as it passed overhead broadcasting its signal. If you knew where to tune in, you could hear its spooky transmission, which sounded like “ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,” according to those who were able to hear it. With great irony, it re-entered earth’s atmosphere in January over Florida, the future home of all NASA spacecraft launches (ok, I made that up).

What most people don’t realize is that Russia contemplated many different uses for Sputnik, but decided against it until they sent a dog into space aboard Sputnik 2. The first thought was to pack the satellite with gunpowder similar to a firework shell. If that design had been approved, then upon reaching its maximum orbital altitude, Sputnik would have exploded and displayed the words “we win, we win,” in several vibrant colors. Another plan was to arch its trajectory to see how far into the U.S. it could land and then measure the distance like they measure a home run. The Russians had hoped that we would reciprocate and shoot one into their country to see who could shoot their satellite the furthest. However, when we didn’t play along, the cold war and space race truly began (a fact I dare you to find in all of our watered down textbooks).

Sputnik blazed a path to space that eventually led to men landing on the moon. If you are reading this over your satellite internet connection or watched your satellite TV today, you should thank Sputnik, the Patron Saint of All Orbital Things. Of course, Sputnik also led to the satellites that now hover over your city monitoring your every move, but we’ll worry about that later. Shhhh, I think they’re watching me now…