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1. Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Oct-2023 17:18:32 UTC Robert McNees

   The Space Age began sixty four years ago, #OTD in 1957, when Sputnik 1 was launched into low Earth orbit. It was the first satellite made by humans.

   Image: NSSDC, NASA

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Oct-2023 17:41:07 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     Eleven days later, on the 15th, scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory produced this plot showing where Sputnik 1 would pass over the course of its next few orbits.

     This was the first example of scientists tracking and then forecasting the position of a human-made object in space.

     Image: Naval Research Laboratory

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Oct-2023 17:45:26 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     NASA has a terrific collection of resources related to Sputnik 1.

     Here's the first US image of the satellite, taken by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's IGY satellite tracking camera on October 17, 1957.

     https://history.nasa.gov/sputnik.html

     Image: NASA / SAO

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Oct-2023 17:46:36 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     But in my opinion this is the best one: NASA's recording of the Sputnik “beep.”

     https://soundcloud.com/nasa/sputnik-beep?si=2c7b72d82a224767a7e017cf248b549b

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Oct-2023 17:53:46 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     The mood in the Pentagon was grim. A young Jeff Goldblum raced down the hallways to let his bosses know the latest intel on the Soviet satellite.

     https://youtu.be/kRblCP6r_8I?si=IrQ_aKPwtzo38Doq