Happy Anniversary, ПС-1!

[alexpgp]

Простейшый Спутник-1 (aka 1957-001B, or "Sputnik" for all us plebes) was launched 50 years ago today, into a low earth orbit, from Tyuratam.

That's the good news.

The bad news: With only very few exceptions, low earth orbit is where we remain today.

Had the same thing happened in aviation, we'd still be doing patterns over Kitty Hawk with experimental aircraft and arguing whether it's really worth attempting transcontinental flights.

Don't mind me. My mood is sour, and not because of why I'm in New York.

Cheers...

Comments

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about the current deplorable state of our use of space.

I remember Sputnik. I was a sophomore at Stanford. Russell von Eshelman was teaching one of my courses and he invited anyone who wanted to come out to the solar radio telescope site to see if Sputnik would pass through the 4 degree fixed beam of the radio telescope. At that time, nobody had a clue about orbital calculations, so the actual oribtal parameters were all guesswork. It didn't pass through the beam, but we were listening to it on a communications receiver. Nobody had realized the full implications yet.

[platofish.livejournal.com]

I'm curious....

The Apollo project resulted in man setting foot on the moon - do you agree with that statement? Did we really manage this feat with relatively primitive tools, given the problems we seem to have with the current fleet of shuttles, etc.