Sputnik 1 is launched
A polished metal sphere well under a metre across, carrying batteries and two radio transmitters, was placed in an elliptical low Earth orbit by an R-7 from Tyuratam. It transmitted a repeating tone on two frequencies that any competent radio amateur could receive, which is why the achievement was independently confirmable within hours and unusually hard to dismiss. Its scientific yield was small. Its strategic meaning was immediate and correctly understood: the rocket that lifted it could deliver a warhead between continents, so the demonstration was of a weapon as much as of a satellite. The American response ran from the creation of a civilian space agency and a defence research agency to a federal education act.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- The R-7 Semyorka · launch vehicle · not located
- Baikonur Cosmodrome · launch site · Kazakhstan
- The intercontinental ballistic missile · technology · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Sputnik and the origins of the space age
Named as the source class for the Sputnik launch date, the R-7 as both first ICBM and first orbital launcher, and the American institutional response. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted; the satellite's mass, orbital parameters and transmitter frequencies are deliberately not quoted in this pack for that reason.
NASA History Office · 1957 · Partly verified
NASA history publications on Sputnik 1, the R-7 launch vehicle and the American institutional response of 1958
Recorded on The R-7 Semyorka
- The R-7 completes a successful full-range flight
- Sputnik 1 is launched
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.