Launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite
- Date
- 4 October 1957
- Category
- Science, technology & invention
- Region
- Soviet Union / Global
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, from the Baikonur (Tyuratam) site in the Kazakh Republic.
The polished metal sphere, about 58 cm across, orbited Earth roughly every 96 minutes and transmitted radio pulses detectable by amateur operators worldwide for some three weeks until its batteries were exhausted; it re-entered the atmosphere in January 1958. Sputnik demonstrated that humans could place objects in orbit and inaugurated the Space Age. Its launch stunned the United States, triggering the 'Sputnik crisis', accelerating the Space Race, prompting the creation of NASA in 1958, and spurring major investment in science and engineering education. The event reshaped Cold War competition and military thinking — since the same rocket technology could deliver intercontinental missiles — and opened the era of satellite communications, navigation, weather observation and Earth science that would transform global society in the following decades.
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Empires active in 4 October 1957
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- French Colonial Empire (Second)1830 CE – 1962 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
Related science, technology & invention events
- Invention of the integrated circuit1958–1959
- Discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA25 April 1953
- Green Revolution Transforms South Asian Agriculturec. 1966 (peak adoption mid-1960s onward)
- Invention of the transistor at Bell LabsDecember 1947
- Apollo 11 Moon landing20 July 1969 (mission 16–24 July 1969)
- Intel Releases the 4004, the First Commercial Microprocessor1971
Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Science
Warm, jargon-free tour of discovery from Babylonian stargazers to the genome.
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