Fifty years ago today, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the first satellite to orbit the earth. It marked the beginning of the "space race." Those of a certain age in the U.S. can remember the shock and concern it caused, as the Cold War was heating up and the USSR seemed to be technologically superior. This caused the U.S. to accelerate its space program, and twelve years later, the U.S. landed a man on the moon.
(photo: Sputnik I being launched from the Baikonur Cosmodome, October 4, 1957)
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