On October 4th, 1957, Soviet Union launched a football sized satellite into space, beginning the space race. It was the size of a basketball weighing 183 pounds. It had four antennas and two radio transmitters in it. This spurred USA to start NASA. Veterans of the Soviet space programme laid flowers near the Kremlin wall at the grave of Sergei Korolyov, the space pioneer who created Sputnik and whose identity was state secret throughout his life. United States later took upper hand with first manned mission to the Moon in 1969. Neil Armstrong, first man to set foot on moon, famously dubbed his step "one giant leap for mankind."
"The communists were going to rule," recalls 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."
Watch the video of Sputnik Launch.
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