sputnik 50th anniversary!
Posted: October 4th, 2007 | Author: GeekGirl | Filed under: Generally Geeky | 1 Comment »
Today is the 50th anniversary of Sputnik! The whole world changed 50 years ago when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I, the world’s first artificial satellite. Did you know it was only about the size of a beach ball? This tiny little thing launched into space. In reading about it and learning about it as a kid I always thought Sputnik was just a funny catchy name that they decided to call it, but really the name means fellow traveler which is very fitting for a satellite in space.
A funny pop culture thing emerged as they usually do with Sputnik 1 resulting in a fashion trend now called the “Sputnik lamp”, which usually consists of a metallic sphere with bars jutting out in multiple directions holding light bulbs or lamp globes at the ends. Most average around 8 to 15 bars, unlike the 4 antennae on Sputnik 1.
Of course the US was not to be outdone in the space advancement category and project Vanguard was not far behind. It seems that’s something we always competed to be better in, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Our country’s competitiveness seems to both advance us and hold us back at times.
[tags]sputnik, sputnik anniversary, space[/tags]
This sputnik thing is going to show my age but I remember when it went up. I was a kid but we had all sorts of conversation about it at school. In fact, the first thing that happened was that people started to get afraid that the USSR was going to win the race and do us in. I am not kidding.
I do think that our competitiveness can be beneficial and detrimental, depending on the subject.
Thanks for sending me down memory lane today.