sputnik anniversary

An aluminum ball with four antennas and two radio transmitters inside, Sputnik I weighed 183 pounds and orbited Earth transmitting a beeping radio signal for 23 days before it ran out of batteries. It fell out of orbit and burned up upon reentry into the Earth's atmosphere in January 1958.

The launch spurred the United States to create NASA and try to outdo the Soviets by sending an American spacecraft outside of Earth's orbit.

Roger Launius, curator of the National Air and Space Museum, said the Sputnik I launch changed the course of scientific research and the tone of the U.S.-Soviet Cold War.

"Two generations after the event, words do not easily convey the American reaction to the Soviet satellite, the only appropriate characterization that begins to capture the mood on Oct. 5 involves the use of the word 'hysteria,'" he told ABC News.

"The communists were going to rule," recalled Homer Hickam, who was 14 when he saw Sputnik. "And the proof of this was this shiny little bauble that flew around the world every 90 minutes."

"I was awestruck by this bright, shiny star that came across the sky with such energy, and I decided at that moment that I wanted to be part of the movement that was the whole world going into space," Hickam, who now trains NASA astronauts, told the Washington Post.


Laika the spacedog



While the United State scrambled to catch up, the Soviets again broke new ground with Sputnik II on November 3 of the same year, which transported the first passenger to space: a dog name Laika.

Laika survived in space for two days before succumbing to heat in the pressurized cabin.

Reading and Discussion Questions
The Americans tried to launch a satellite called Vanguard TV3 on December 6, but it crashed back onto the launchpad.

Not until January 31, 1958, did the United States successfully send Explorer I into orbit. That craft contained a Geiger counter to detect cosmic radiation.

Both countries later sent humans into space and in July 1969 the United States sent the first human to the Moon.



Space race leads to cooperation



The Sputnik launch came during the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in decades of political tension and proxy wars in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, becoming Russia and several other smaller nations, the Americans and Russians began to work together and pool their space research in projects such as the International Space Station.


Asia is new player in space race



But while the U.S. has been a leader in developing new space technologies for decades, some experts warn that Asia might lead the next space race.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium, warned that lack of investment in developing science professionals in the U.S. could shift the cutting edge to China, Japan and India.

"In America, contrary to our self-image, we are no longer leaders but simply players. We've moved backward just by standing still," he told Agence France-Presse.

Although the U.S. has plans to travel to Mars and revisit the Moon, China launched its first manned spaceflight in 2003 and plans to send a satellite to orbit the Moon.

Japan is also jumping in, planning a similar Moon probe and several manned space missions.

NASA's chief scientist for the Moon and Mars, Jim Garvin, said the age of America going it alone in space is over and the first person on Mars will probably be planting a whole sheaf of flags.

"It's really a playing field for the world community," he told the Post.

"I see it as a U.N.-type flag arena on Mars."
The Russian Embassy's senior counselor for science and technology will be in Ohio to mark the 50th anniversary of Sputnik and the 102nd anniversary of the Wright brothers' first powered, controlled flight.

Yevgeny Zvedre, space attache at the Russian Embassy in Washington D.C., is scheduled on Thursday to tour the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum in Wapakoneta and speak at a space conference at the University of Dayton. On Friday, he will watch a re-creation of the Wright brothers' flight at Huffman Prairie.

Zvedre's address at the conference, titled "From the Wright Brothers to Sputnik and Beyond," is expected to focus on Sputnik and the future of the Russian space program.

Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, was launched by the Soviets and circled the globe Oct. 4, 1957. The threat of a Soviet-dominated space spurred the U.S. government to increase tenfold money spent on science, education and research.

On Oct. 5, 1905, the Wright brothers made the first powered, controlled flight, at Huffman Prairie, an 84-acre pasture outside Dayton. The Wright brothers' first flight occurred Dec. 17, 1903, at Kill Devil Hills, N.C., a few miles south of Kitty Hawk.

Speakers at the conference will include Amanda Wright Lane, great-grandniece of Wilbur and Orville Wright.Fifty years ago next week, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I ― little more than a beeping metal ball ― into space. Never before had an artificial object orbited the Earth.

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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."

Today, as the anniversary of the birth of the Space Age approaches, those who were involved at the beginning and others who are key to future explorations are frustrated. Interviews with those scientists, astronauts, bureaucrats and historians reveal regret about America's decisions regarding space travel, and disagreement about its current goals ― namely, returning to the moon rather than focusing on Mars.

They also wonder: Has America's enthusiasm for human exploration of the solar system gotten lost in space?

"There's less interest on the part of Americans in doing bold things," acknowledges Griffin, who nonetheless argues that public support for further human exploration of the solar system remains strong. Griffin sees NASA's $100 billion plan to return to the moon no sooner than a decade from now as an important first step in going to Mars.

Others aren't impressed with NASA's plan and believe the USA should show the same ambition it had a half-century ago amid the shock of Sputnik.

Elon Musk, founder of a private company that hopes to use its rockets to help NASA carry cargo into space, says that, even as most technology has advanced, U.S. technology for flying humans in space has withered. "We used to be able to go to the moon. … Now we can only get to orbit in those creaky old space shuttles," Musk says. "We've regressed."

The moon represents NASA's most ambitious near-term plan, with Mars as its second major target for human exploration. Griffin says he'd like the space agency to aim toward sending astronauts on the three-year round trip to Mars in the 2030s