00:00October 4th, 1957. A quiet night in the Kazakh desert. Then the roar of 20 engines ignites.
00:09Korolev's R-7 lifts off, carrying something no one expected. The first man-made object to circle
00:17Earth forever. Sputnik 1 is born, and the world will never be the same.
00:25This beach ball-sized sphere, just 58 centimeters across, weighing 83 kilograms, gleams with four
00:34long antennas like insect legs. No cameras, no fancy instruments, just a simple radio transmitter
00:41sending out rhythmic beeps. But those beeps travel around the globe, picked up by radio amateurs
00:47from New York to Tokyo. The Soviet Union announces it triumphantly. Sputnik, fellow traveler,
00:54is in orbit every 96 minutes at 8 kilometers per second.
01:01In America, panic erupts. President Eisenhower's team is stunned.
01:07Mr. President, the situation is escalating rapidly. What are our options?
01:11Deployment is the only viable response, sir.
Comments