Today back in 1957 the first artificial satellite ever was launched into space.  The satellite was the size of a volleyball.  It was a diameter of 22 inches and weighed 184 pounds. Its named was Sputnik, which is the Russian word for satellite.

Sputnik was launched at 10:29pm in Moscow time from a Russian launch base in the Kazakh Republic.  It circled the earth every hour a thirty six minutes. It traveled at 18,000 mph and the farthest it got away from earth was 584 miles.  The closest it got was 143 miles.

If you had binoculars Sputnik was visible from sunrise to sunset.  If you had a radio you could pick up the radio signals coming fro the satellite.  Many people here in the US had the radios constantly on just so they could listen to the satellite at work.  Sputnik crossed the US a couple times a day.

In January 1958 the Satellite deteriorated in space.

Maddie