Sputnik

Sputnik **

By: Griffin K. On October 4, 1957 the world changed forever when the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite. The satellite was about the size of a beach ball and could orbit the earth in about 98 minutes. This all began when in 1957 the United States decided to start creating their first satellite during the International Geophysical Year (IGY). The reason they decided to create the satellite at this time was because the International Council of Scientific Unions chose July 1, 1957- December 31, 1958 as the best time because they knew solar activity would be at a high point. The project for the launching of the U.S satellite was widely known throughout the scientific community while the Soviet Union’s Sputnik was created in secret. This is why when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik before the United States everyone saw this as the Soviet Union’s superiority over the United States. This is seen as the beginning of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the launching of Sputnik the United States began a series of projects that would launch them into the space age. The Unites States began their explorer project and during this time they saw the creation of NASA. The man who is widely accepted as being the creator of Sputnik and father of Soviet Space Program is Sergei Korolev. For decades no one knew who was the main person behind the creation of Sputnik because under the communist regime Sergei Korolev’s identiy was kept a secret. While his success as the leader of the Soviets in the Space Race was well deserved he had to pay dearly for his success. When Korolev was first starting out he was part of a team of missile designers and became employed by the Soviet government to make intercontinental missiles. Some of his colleagues became jealous of him and denounced him to the Soviet Union and he was sent to the labor camp in Eastern Siberia; Gulag. His time at the labor camp was marked with abuse, hard labor, and disease. When he was finally released from Gulag he returned to his family and tried to begin his life over again. He got his big break after WWII when Stalin was looking for missile experts to exploit the Nazi’s V-2 missiles. He was called upon to lead a team to design more missiles and possibly build a missile which could travel across continents. When news came out that the Americans where designing a satellite that would be launched during the International Geophysical Year of 1957 the Soviets began to race to try and get a satellite into space first. Again the Soviets called upon Korolev to design Sputnik and within a few years Sputnik was launched into space. The whole time Korolev was leading the Soviets into the space age his identity remained unknown to the world.