Your Sputnik memories

scott wilcott, marshfield, Wis — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:05:50 GMT

My brother (8 in '57) remembers duck and cover drills in grade school though my class (3 years behind) didn't hold any. This idea of America being totally vulnerable to total annihilation was new.
My main recollection of Sputnik was Garry Moore's "I've Got A Secret" show. His guest's secret was "Every time Sputnik goes over my house, my garage door opens".

Your Sputnik memories

RBH — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:12:17 GMT

I was a senior in a small town high school with just two science teachers when Sputnik went up. Fortunately both teachers were good -- enthusiastic and knowledgeable -- and I had already decided I'd do something in science when I graduated. 'Course, every red-blooded American boy with an IQ larger than his waist size was also determined to do so, or at least that's my (possibly distorted) memory. :)

Listening to the recordings of Sputnik's beeps on the radio (yeah, with tubes that glowed in the dark) reinforced that decision. It was an eerie feeling to know it was up there going around the earth, particularly when 10 years earlier running outside just to see an airplane -- a DC-3 -- passing overhead was a common reaction out in the boondocks where I lived.

As things turned out I worked in aerospace for nearly 10 years, starting as a Navy technician on Polaris at the Cape during the Gemini days and ending working on the development & evaluation of the Apollo Command Module control system at Honeywell. I left aerospace and defense for a different scientific discipline not long thereafter, but still retain my interest in space and spaceflight.

I'm less entranced with manned spaceflight than unmanned, if for no other reason than we learn so much more for the money from unmanned flights like the current exploration of Mars by the various rovers. The manned space station is, in my opinion, little more than a money sink that sucks the life out of considerably more science that could be done. And the neglect of the Hubble is criminal. My guess is that in spite of the last-minute addition of a servicing flight, the flight launch date will slip until it's too late, and until the Webb is up we'll lose a big chunk of genuine science.

Your Sputnik memories

Dave Oshel, Cedar Rapids, IA — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:14:49 GMT

I was 12, in Pearl River, NY in 1957. We'd just read what I felt was a preposterously smug assessment by "authorities" that the US might have a satellite in space in a few years, and our cold-war adversaries, the Russians, were too incompetent to mention in the same breath. October 4, a few weeks later, gave me my very first introduction to the joys of schadenfreude as Sputnik beeped happily away. It wasn't Watergate that destroyed political credibility in this country; it was Sputnik, and the Cold War.

Your Sputnik memories

Don Sebo, Phoenix, Arizona — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:47:36 GMT

I was a sputnik kid. I remember returning to school after Christmas Vacation and the math curriculum was re-tooled from basic math to geometry and algebra. It wasn't what they did - but how they did it. The teacher tried to explain why it was important for us to learn more advanced math and science but we were in the second grade and the reasoning was mostly lost on us.

We landed on the moon in 1969 and showed the world we could set goals and accomplish them but to what end?

If there is any lesson from the cold war and the space race worth remembering it is this: A country's prestige is not measured by who gets to the moon first but rather by who is unwilling to make stupid decisions to get there.

Your Sputnik memories

Ray — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:54:20 GMT

I was 10, my brother was 6, and my sister 4yr old when we saw Sputnik flying overhead in Statesville, NC. For kids it caught our imagination like little else at the time. I eventually studied chemistry and biochemistry in college and became a medical research scientist but I never lost my interest in human or robotic exporation of outer space.

Your Sputnik memories

Virginia Rivers, Oklahoma City, OK — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:00:42 GMT

I was a 6 year old first grader, in Fort Worth, Texas. The only thing I can remember was Sputnik chewing gum, bright blue with spikes on it. It would probably be considered unsafe in this day and time.

Your Sputnik memories

Robert"Mike" Helms, Rolling Hills, WY — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:03:47 GMT

I was a child of 7 years old and remember watching sputnik looking like a bright little star as it scooted across the sky. I also remember that it seemed to be quite an exciting event for the adults in the small town of Sinclair, WY. As a child it didn't seem threatening.

Your Sputnik memories

David — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:45:05 GMT

I was about to be 13 and I learned my first Russian word: "Sputnik". Meaning I believe "Little Potato". After that all I remember is the beginnings of what would be a frantic space race ending with the US as the "victor". I couldn't figure out what the big deal was or why we didn't already have a rocket we could launch into space to put a box of electronics into orbit. All the exploding rockets on the launch pad simply amazed me. And then to move to an Atlas ICBM to get the payload up there later was embarrassing. To me that was akin to using a deuce and a half to go to the grocery store. I was proud, but confused.

Your Sputnik memories

David Herron, Middleburg, FL — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:46:49 GMT

I was 6 going on 7. I remember how the adults seemed to think it was a big deal. My main memory was on several occasions with a lot of the neighbors standing on the street, looking up in the sky to watch it fly over. There is so much light polution in Atlanta now that it would be impossible to do that today.

Your Sputnik memories

Wayne, Alamogordo, NM — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:59:40 GMT

I was born in 1958, so instead of being considered a baby boomer, I guess I should be considered a part of the sat-gen.

Most people don't have the opportunity to view unobstructed space at night, but if they did, they'd probably be amazed at the number of satellites you can see on any given night. I think my highest count so far is 36 in a 3-hour period while camping in the Rockies. Of course Sputnik is long gone, but we can look forward to seeing most of today's satellites for a very long time. Views of space from our tiny little planet will always have constance reminders of man's technology and push towards the stars.

Your Sputnik memories

steve smyth lynn ma — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:14:41 GMT

I remember realizing that Sputnik was a weapon...didn't understand the concept at first, but my Father, who was involved with space exploration research at the time, made it clear to me.
I was ten...nothing has changed...
Earth is surrounded by a grid of defense satellites, all pointed this way.
I was ten at the time, and while other kids blathered excitedly about some Jules Verne nonsense, I worried about Leica...that one was called Muttnik, by the way...pre-political correctness...pre-alottastuff...
Anyone who denies that there is a sense of impending doom emanating from space, rather than the wondrous sense of awe mankind once felt is not being truthful with theirself.
Rocketeers, Boys and their Toys, Administering Space,...blah, blah, blah...it ain't Space Exploration...no way...no how...
DAMMIT!

Your Sputnik memories

Ken Wright, Chesterfield, MO — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:59:20 GMT

I was in 7th grade. We were stationed at Quantico, VA, while my father, a Marine Lt Col, went to senior officers school. I was listening to the radio when the news about Sputinik came on. I listened to it, then, as I was passing through the living room where my father was reading the paper, casually mentioned to him that the Russians had launched a satellite.

His reaction is probably why I remember it. He yelled "What!", leaped from the chair and ran into the kitchen to listen. I was far more impressed by my father's launch than by the satellite's.

A note on duck and cover drills during the cold war. We were stationed in Yokosuka, Japan from '54 through '56. For our drills we didn't duck and cover. The base air raid sirens would sound and the entire elementary school would be marched to nearby air raid caves that had been dug by the Japanese during WWII. Much more exciting and out of class for at least an hour!

Your Sputnik memories

Lex Cowsert, New Braunfels, TX — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:20:15 GMT

I can clearly remember lying in the back yard in our suburban Washington DC home in October 1957 to watch Sputnik go by in the night sky. On that night who could have imagined that nearly 5 years to the date (October 1962), in that same house, I would be living at what many regarded as ground zero during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

Sputnik and the polio vaccine are two historically important events occurring in my lifetime that ultimately drove me to a career in science.

Your Sputnik memories

Dwight Reagan — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:31:18 GMT

I was in my second year of college in engineering in El Paso taking my first course in general physics. My professor (Dr. Ballard) was a part time teacher on loan from White Sands Proving Ground. The morning Sputnik was announced, we were all ears listening to him explain the whole phenomenon, suggesting that he was not at all surprised about the event. What a wonderful memory!

Dwight Reagan

Your Sputnik memories

mike burke, chicago il — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:32:14 GMT

I can remembere how frightened we were as kids, that the Russians had beat the US into space. We felt that this was the beginning of the end.
America was always the first in everything and the greatest to us, the thought that we were second to our greatest enemy really scared us. This was more scary then the missle crisis to us.

Your Sputnik memories

Debbie Finn, Pleasanton, CA — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:34:54 GMT

I was 6 years old when Sputnik passed overhead one evening. Mom, Dad and I stood out on our front lawn in Fullerton, CA with the rest of the neighbors. Everyone was very quiet and seemed nervous. This was before smog made Southern California's air too thick to see the stars clearly.

In the following years, duck and cover exercises were held regularly in school, bomb shelters were dug in back yards and grocery stores were emptied during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was a fearful time in which to grow up, but at least a kid could walk the streets without the risk of kidnapping or being shot in a drive by attack.

Your Sputnik memories

Tom, Amelia, Ohio — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:43:09 GMT

I was 10. My friend Chris was 9. We were camping out that night- away from family and friends. We had our camping gear, a flashlight and a transistor radio. We had planned to listen to rock-n-roll music and stay up all night, all things parents wouldn't allow at home. This was our first overnighter.

Shortly after sundown the radio news interuptions began. Russia launched a satellite. The USA was in a cold war with Russia at that particular time and Russia had lauched a satellite!

Our comfort factor for that evening crashed. Was the satellite carrying a secret attack force? Would it land in our small town? What science fiction type weapons would they have. We left our flashlight on to see any potential attackers. By 11:00 PM its batteries failed. We lay in the dark. We listened to the new interrupts about the circling Sputnik... every 90 minutes or so, over and over. The music wasn't important anymore, just the announcer's updates. Around 3 or 4 AM our radio went silent, lost its power. We were alone. We slept intermittently then, until sunrise came when we could see the trails again and quickly hiked back home, back to the comfort of other people.

Yes, I still remember Sputnik's launch.

Your Sputnik memories

Carol DiNolfo, Los Angeles, CA — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:08:50 GMT

I was only 3 when Sputnik circled the Earth, but it is one of my fondest memories with my father. He found out when it would be passing overhead and we went outside that night to look for it. We saw it moving across the heavens. I was hooked on space and astronomy from that moment to this very day.

Your Sputnik memories

Ron Potash, Lawrenceville NJ — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:32:19 GMT

Age 27, sunset in Worcester MA, Drs. parking lot, St Vincent Hospital. I was an "In-Residence" Physician training in General Surgery. A portable radio with short wave tuned in to the "beeps", which I heard. But multiple attempts to see the Sputnik passing overhead was never successful Anxieties abounded about A-bomb technology in the "Cold War" era and outer space delivery to the US. Some friends said they saw Sputnik traversing the sky. I had doubts. I suspect that they saw a airliner going to Boston or NYC. Or a twinkling star. After a couple weeks, talk returned to sex jokes, Yankee-Red Sox stats,good restaurants, the next car purchase, and pending induction into the military. Back to normalcy!

Your Sputnik memories

pam sams, escondido , california — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:35:25 GMT

I remember the dog that went up with Sputnik and listening to it die......horrible death.

Your Sputnik memories

Bob, Marion, IL — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:39:55 GMT

I remember one item that made the news during the Sputnik event. That is, someone named their newborn son "Orbit". That is about as bad as being "A Boy Named Sue". I wonder how ol' Orbit made it these last 50 years. Bob

Your Sputnik memories

Bob C., Mansfield, Mass. — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:50:05 GMT

When Sputnik was launched in Oct. 1957, I was just three months shy of 5 years old. Sputnik's orbit brought it over the United States frequently, as the Soviets wanted to remind us of their technological feat. We lived in a third floor apartment in a Massachusetts mill city. I vividly remember our second floor neighbor running up the stairs with the latest news from the radio saying it was passing overhead. We all gathered on the back porch to watch a light slowly traverse the early evening sky. At the time I didn't really understand why my family and neighbors were so excited, but neither will I ever forget that moment in my life.

Your Sputnik memories

Thomas L. Schmitz Malone, Wisconsin — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:53:39 GMT

I was 6 years old and recovering from a leg fracture at the time of the Sputnik launch. It was a very prominent news story, about as prominent as the Milwaukee Braves playing in the World Series.

Your Sputnik memories

schoolnana - Ottawa, Canada — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 00:38:39 GMT

My husband played hockey in Europe and played the Russians when they were just starting to compete with other teams and was given a small model of a Sputnik as a gift from the Russians. My grandson now has it and has taken it for show and tell at his school.

Your Sputnik memories

B. Stewart, Los Angeles, CA — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 00:49:18 GMT

I was 10 when my father got my brothers and I out of bed before dawn to watch Sputnik go over. He had to explain to me what it was. We went out in front of our house (near Boston) with a lot of our neighbors out as well. Silence fell in hushed awe as we finally saw the tiny speck of light going across the sky. It was one of many times my father got us kids up for astronomical events such as comets and the aurora borealis (yes in Boston). It recent years it was a trip to the hills to see the MIR station go by with both Russian and Americans on board. How far we've come.

Your Sputnik memories

Jim House, Walnut Creek, CA — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 01:10:07 GMT

As a 13 year old aspiring Ham Radio operator I was thrilled to hear signals from Sputnik on 20 and 40 Meters (wavelength) on my recently acquired Heathkit AR-3 short wave receiver. Sure everyone was running around saying that the sky was falling, but for me being able to participate in this small way demystified it and made it and exciting and wondrous experience.

Your Sputnik memories

Vidyardhi Nanduri — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 01:15:43 GMT

Sub: Space Quest
Sputnik era is the beginning of Space Quest . The vision and Leadership must be acknowledged by all Humanity.With and ISS ,are we advancing in Space Quest to Cosmos Quest ?The Cosmic Puzzle attracts Scientists, Philosophers and all mankind in
several disciplines in search of divinity of the Human Being and Nature.Search must inspire PEACE and Co-existence on this Earthplanet. Manned Space Flights can be replaced with Sensible Perception of COSMOS YOGA VISION Development that helps COSMOLOGY as harbinger of World Peace

Your Sputnik memories

Wayne L. Doering, USAF Ret., Clarendon, Texas — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 01:27:56 GMT

I was a TSgt in the USAF and stationed in Fresno, CA as an USAF Advisor to the CA ANG's 194th Fighter Intercepter Sgdn. located in Fresno.
Along with many other Fresno residents, I stood on the walkway in front of my home at 946 North Fruit Ave. as Sputnik passed overhead. It appeared to be a very bright ball and moving along at a pretty good clip.

Your Sputnik memories

Jim, Albuquerque — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 01:28:22 GMT

I remember sitting on a street curb at night and watching the little light go across the night sky and my Dad telling me that as of that day, the world was going to be a very different place. For myself, I thought it was a kind of neat thing that it moved slower than a shooting star, but was not impressed with the achievement. I was mor interested in Howdy Doody and all on the rounded tube black and white television that we had not had for very long and my wondrous crystal radio. Of course, I was only 8 years old at the time.

Your Sputnik memories

Walter L. Wagner — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 01:30:31 GMT

I was seven, and my father took me outside to watch it pass overhead. I was aware that it was a significant event that impressed my father, but not aware of how profoundly it would be changing the US. Thereafter, I began watching every US manned launch, which early morning TV programs were made available by my school in California, which routine I continued on my own thereafter until well into the Space Shuttle era.

Your Sputnik memories

Bruce Meigs Brick, NJ — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 01:34:12 GMT

i was in parochial school in the second grade, and I remember the nun telling us to pray because the communists had put another moon in the sky

Your Sputnik memories

a p garcia — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:15:45 GMT

I remember lying in the grass of my uncle's house and seeing Sputnik dart across the sky. The street hardly had any lights, so acclimating to a dark sky was no problem.

Your Sputnik memories

Jim Oberg — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:25:34 GMT

I was a space nut already, thanks to living in suburban New York and visiting the Hayden Planetarium a lot, and thanks to my grandfather giving me a copy of 'From the Earth to the Moon', and to the books by Clarke, Ley, and others. But I was a day late in learning of Sputnik because I'd gone to bed when my parents saw the news on TV and they didn't think to wake me. So it was the next day, about noon, when I walked to the corner to get my stack of 'Reporter Dispatch' newspapers to deliver, that I saw the headline -- and knew my life was different, forever. After delivering the papers I walked down to the town grocery store and hung out in front, chatting with neighbors coming by -- and I was astonished they didn't seem to feel their lives had changed at all. But I was just a gawky 12-year-old, what did I know?

Your Sputnik memories

Gordon Myers, Stamford, Connecticut — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:30:53 GMT

I remember lying on my bed, listening to radio station KYW in Cleveland. It was Friday night, I was 13 years old, and we had just gotten home from our local high school’s football game with our arch rival. Rocky River had lost to Bay Village, 12-6. The date was October 4, 1957.

“We’ve just received a news bulletin - it has been reported that the Soviet Union has launched the world’s first artificial satellite into orbit around the earth.” I ran downstairs and told my parents. They were surprised – and I was shocked. My 1950’s eighth graders view of the world was simple – the Soviet Union was the “bad guy”. America was “good”, and “better than anyone else.” We had the best technology, were the smartest, the leaders, invincible. Suddenly everything looked upside down.

Space and astronomy had always interested me. Plastic models of the Vanguard satellite the United States was planning to launch during the 1957-58 “International Geophysical Year” were on my wall. It was round, about the size of a grapefruit, and weighed about 3 pounds. Suddenly something called “Sputnik” was in space “beeping” messages down to earth. And then I heard it was about 22 inches in diameter and weighed 185 pounds... Clearly, in the frank language of a later time, the Soviet Union hadn’t just won the race, they had kicked our butts. And this was not a high school football game…

I still remember the first subsequent Life magazine article with the words “The Feat that Shook the Earth” emblazoned on a photo showing the track of the Sputnik satellite etched across the night sky.

The ramifications of the Soviet’s success could not be fully foreseen. First, there was the panic to “catch up”. But every attempted launch of a Vanguard satellite resulted in pictures of exploding rockets. The federal government abruptly got the Army Missile Center in Huntsville, Alabama involved. In what in hindsight was an amazingly short time, they used a Redstone intermediate range ballistic missile to launch the US first satellite called Explorer 1 just four months later on January 31, 1958. But the space race was on. For every step we took, the Soviet Union took a bigger one. Bigger satellites, higher orbits, launching animals (dogs) into space… Step by step they were constantly ahead. And then they put the first man into space on April 12, 1961. Our response was a feeble sub-orbital flight of Alan Shepherd on May 5th.

It was a year later when John Glenn became America’s first astronaut to circle the globe – February 20, 1962. The whole nation watched in hope of a successful mission. I was a senior in high school. Classes were canceled and we all remained in our “home rooms” listening to the crackling of the radio coverage being played out over the intercom system. Adrenaline flowed through our veins; we’d seen so many photos of exploding rockets we expected the worst. But this time it all worked; a small sense of American pride was renewed. But clearly we were in second place.

Sputnik caused a major self-appraisal of America’s school systems. Why had the Soviets beaten us? What was wrong with our school system? There were numerous articles comparing the quality of math and science education in the two countries – it didn’t look pretty. Changes occurred quickly; advanced placement math and science classes appeared. Every week there were major articles in newspapers and magazines about “outer space”. The Sunday newspaper magazines had lead articles about getting to the moon. The entire nation was fixated on space.

Years later I was lucky enough to work for IBM supporting NASA in Houston on the Apollo and Shuttle programs. Looking back I'm amazed how fast things moved between Sputnik and Apollo. It was a great time to be alive.

Your Sputnik memories

Bob, Newport Beach CA — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:33:35 GMT

I was in my final week of Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island SC & we were allowed to go to the PX to make purchases before being sent for advanced infantry training. We had been in total isolation for 12+ weeks so had no idea what was going on in civilian life for 3 months.One of the recruits bought a pocket radio & we heard the eerie sounds of Sputnik as it circled above the earth. Our Drill Instructor said we were probably going to be sent to Europe to fight the Russians, who had now one upped America in the space race, & President Eisenhower was concerned they would use Sputnik-like space craft to drop A bombs on US cities. By the time we graduated from boot camp there was more concern by the US government about Castro in Cuba so we were sent to Gitmo to "protect" the incumbent Battista regime.
Barbedwire 57

Your Sputnik memories

R. McKenzie, Nebraska — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:56:27 GMT

I was a high school freshman in '57 and already very interested in science. I had watched the various Vanguard rockets explode dramatically on the launch pad more than once. The dime store was offering various toys based on what was certain to be the first earth satilitte. So it was a shock to everyone, myself included, to learn that the Russians, who were generally thought to be incapable of doing anything this exact. Keep in mind that to insert anyting into orbit required a high degree of accuracy and such accuracy meant that the Russian a-bombs could be placed exactly where they intended. Hence the extreme amount of alarm over this achievement.

To give you some idea of the state of things at this time, I learned of the Sputnik from the daily newspaper, and watched the explosions of the Vanguard rockets in the movie theater during the News reel that either followed or preceded the cartoon short before the double feature. Such was life in a central Nebraska town far from the nearest TV transmitters.

Your Sputnik memories

Delmar Fairchild, Barron, WI — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:58:53 GMT

In Northern Wisconsin about 1957 when I was about 10, my parents were building a cabin on Lake Hilbert. We would go there for the entire summer and my dad would work on the cabin for his two weeks vacation. We would all go down to the dock at night and watch a light in the sky go from west to east, fairly fast. I was told it was Sputnik and once was told it was Telstar, but all I know was it was man made. We would see it just about every night for some time. Then we didn't see it anymore or we didn't look for it. If it was Sputnik, (or the second stage as written) or even Telstar, I will never forget that there was something up there that man put there. I could have cared less that it was Russian made.

Your Sputnik memories

not stupid Seattle area — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:15:06 GMT

I was 12 - it's a memory that the US was upset that the Soviets beat us into space. later we found out that the US could have done it year earlier IF we had used a "military" booster (we were stuck on using the Vanguard (wouldn't work) civilian booster. when we finally launched Pioneer it was with a Jupiter (military booster) IIRC

Your Sputnik memories

Thomas Ashby, Calgary — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:17:09 GMT

All the people here (and me) were wonder struck at the new space age that began at that time. It wasn't political at all. It was only about the wonder of embarking on space travel and not cultural divide.

Your Sputnik memories

Thomas Ashby, Calgary — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:26:23 GMT

This was the result of Americas reply to Sputnik. A political screw-up. A grand example of how a rushed reponse to fear and suspicion can totally flop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK6a6Hkp94o

Your Sputnik memories

Frank Hill, Port Townsend, WA — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:31:13 GMT

Sophomore Junior College Economics Class -- the prof
going on and on about U.S. superiority over every single
thing the USSR had - would - could do; literally chastising every question; not allowing room for any
other opinion, WHEN RAP RAP RAP and the Associate Dean
popped in to announce Sputnik! A lesson never forgotten;
still sometimes comes to mind. Thank you, Frank

Your Sputnik memories

Susan Roberts — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:50:14 GMT

I remember learning a song in first grade... " Beep-beep, beep-beep, here comes a satellite! Beep-beep, beep, and now it's out of sight! Beep-beep, beep-beep, around the earth it goes! Beep-beep, beep-beep, and that's how science grows!"

Your Sputnik memories

James W. Barnard, Highlands Ranch, CO — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:51:27 GMT

I was 15, and had just come home for the weekend from my prep school. My grandmother, called me with the news that the Russians had put an artificial satellite in orbit. As I had been interested in aviation and space since 4th grade, and was independently studying liquid rocket engine design (on my own!), my immediate reaction was a cold chill up my spine. I said to my grandmother and parents, "That means they have an ICBM...if they've solved the re-entry problem!"

The launching of Sputnik I, followed by Laika in Sputnik II a short time later (I don't remember seeing Sputnik I, but do remember watching the carrier rocket's upper stage from Sputnik II wink on and off as it tumbled end-over-end, over Chicago) triggered not only the "Space Race", but a revolution in American science education. By the following year my prep school physics class was a participating member of the experimental course in elementry quantum mechanics developed by MIT. We had mimeographed lessons mailed to our teacher weekly.

I well-remember listening to reports of the launch of Explorer I on the Jupiter-C on January 31, 1958! After my first year of college I was lucky enough to get a job at Cape Canaveral working on the Polaris missile, and to meet six of the Seven Mercury astronauts.

After college and a tour of duty in the USAF, I continued working in the aerospace industry until 1989.

What I find disturbing is that today is the lack of concern on the part of John Q. Public over the rapid developments by the Chinese, Indians, and Japanese in space exploration, as well as the relative indifference on the part of the major space advocacy groups, school administrators and even science teachers to introducing the subject of space and space-related science to youngsters in K-8 grades. Based on personal experience, I believe that if children aren't interested by about 6th grade, they won't be turned on to the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines later.

Your Sputnik memories

Ronald Potash Sr, Lawrenceville, NJ — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:58:29 GMT

Sputnik 1= October 1, 1957. Nitrogen internal environment.

Sputnik 2= November 2, 1957, balanced Oxygen internal environment. Laika, a female dog, was the passenger. A thermal heater control failed and the dog died of overheating.

Your Sputnik memories

Janet Rice, Round Rock, TX — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 04:47:14 GMT

I remember being 5 years old in Hesperia, Michigan and standing outside to watch Sputnik go over. I also remember being really afraid that it meant something bad could happen. Perhaps that's why I no longer listen to doom sayers. People have been saying for as long as I can remember that we are all doomed from one thing or another, and you know, somewhere in there I just stopped being afraid of much of anything.

Your Sputnik memories

Bob Drury, Dubuque, Ia — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 05:10:42 GMT

I was 10 years old in Libertyville, Ill when the news hit. My Dad and I went out one night to see it pass. I can't remember if we saw it or not. An interesting sidelight. I was at ChuLai, Vietnam as a helicopter pilot when our first man landed on the moon. I saw AFVN TV and remembering going out that night to see the moon and marvel that were men on there. I struggled with it as it seemed so much more important than the was I was fighting and the friends I lost. Will I ever get over it? No.

Your Sputnik memories

Judi Sato, San Jose, CA — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 05:19:03 GMT

I was 5 when my mom took us out to watch it fly by overhead the first time. We went out everynight after that to see the satelite. She was such a space fan. She knew the names of every astronaut that flew a mission (and probably the names of the ones that didn't get to fly). Her dream was answered when my dad got a job at NASA working on the Skylab program. We were thinking of sending her ashes up into space, but we ended up putting "Space Fan" on her grave marker.

Your Sputnik memories

Wilbur Sitze, Las Cruces, NM — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 05:31:08 GMT

I was 18, a freshman Physics major at NMSU, and a volunteer announcer on the campus carrier current Radio Station, KNMA. That evening I was on duty for the evening classical music program when the AP teletype dinged the maximum number of times, signifying a major news break. So I was able to announce Sputnik I to the campus. I was likewise on duty when the first successful U.S. satellite was launched at the end of January, and was privileged to announce that to the campus, too. I was, by that time, working for the Physical Science Lab (PSL) on campus, integrating rocket trajectories from tests at White Sands Missile Range using electro-mechanical calculators to compute positional data at intervals of 1/10th of a second.

After a stint in the Air Force, I was hired by Grumman Aerospace Corp. to work on testing Lunar Module engines for the Apollo program, followed by testing the Mars Lander Viking engine (for organic contamination of landing soils), Shuttle OMS and RCS engines, and eventually on to testing the TDRS Systems for the NASA space network for a total of more than 30 years in Aerospace.

It's been a great ride!!

Your Sputnik memories

Lori Upstate New York — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 06:25:30 GMT

I was ten years old and that morning my parents must have been talking about Sputnik’s launch by the Russians and how it circled our planet several times a day. I walked out the long driveway that October morning to wait for the school bus. I kept looking up, hoping I’d see it fly over before the bus came!

I remember the bomb drills we had in school. Some times, bend over and kiss your ass goodbye under your wooden desk and other times we’d all file into the big gym with all the other classes and sit in rows on the floor and wait to be bombed together.

One Saturday afternoon, I was playing with my two younger brothers out in a nearby field when I saw “the bomb” heading for us! I literally dragged my two protesting crying brothers through a brook and down the rocky dirt driveway to get them home. My mother heard the commotion and came out on the porch shouting over my screams to ask what was wrong. “The bomb, look the bomb is coming!” I cried pointing to the first Goodyear blimp I’d ever seen. They all still laugh about it today. I do too, but back then, I was scared witless. Talk about propaganda…

Your Sputnik memories

Anthony Wrifford — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 06:48:24 GMT

I wish I could remember this event.

The first human on the moon is as far back as I can recall. I remember reading about Sputnik later in elementary school. It seems that Americans were freaked about the Russians getting into space first. They even had the first human in space in 1961, which is when I was born. The coolest space mission I can recall, though, was the first space shuttle flight in 1981.

Your Sputnik memories

Dave Lozier, Pleasanton, California — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 07:09:11 GMT

I was a freshman at Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane Washington on October 4, 1957. Most of my interest in science came from science fiction magazines, DC comics and the Flash Gordon early TV serials. My mother hauled me out of bed that October to watch the little pinpoint of light go across the night sky. She pointed to the light and said “that’s your future”. It was fall in the Pacific Northwest, cold at night and all I wanted to do was go back to bed.

I majored in Mathematics/Computer Science and after graduation from Washington State University in 1966 I went to work for NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field California. For the next 38 years I had the great fortune to be part of the Golden Age of Space Exploration. We sent four spacecraft around the Sun, two to Jupiter and Saturn, a Venus orbiter that lasted 14 years and four probes into the atmosphere of Venus.

Sputnik thrust the nation into the “space age” and the nation responded. It was a great career.

Your Sputnik memories

Shirley Belon, Ester, Alaska — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 07:27:40 GMT

My husband and I were in our mid-twenties and we had just moved to Fairbanks, Alaska the year before Sputnik was launched. A group of young scientists working at the University of Alaska (Fairbanks) Geophysical Institute spotted this first lunched Russian satellite floating across the overhead sky. My husband, Albert, worked with these people!! We were all very excited about this event, which took place during the International Geophysical Year, and was followed by the launching of the first U.S. satellite a few months later. We still live in Alaska (near Fairbank) in the small community of Ester.

Your Sputnik memories

Josh Wallace, Montreal, Canada — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 07:34:16 GMT

I was in kindergarten and my folks decided I should be Sputnik for the school's Halloween party. I won first prize! The award itself was a shiny new silver dollar. I regret to this day that I spent it, I have no idea on what.

Your Sputnik memories

Edward Brann, Pasco, WA — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 08:00:50 GMT

As a highschool freshman at St. John's Military School and a member of the radio club, we all crouded around the SW receiver to listen to the beep, beep as Sputnik went over head.

During the Gemini flights, some friends and I built a VHF receiver and listened to the downlink radio as the spacecraft passed over head.

I managed to graduate with a degree in Physics/Math while working as an aircraft electronics technicion.

As luck would have it, I ended up at the Manned Spacecraft Center (Johnson Spacecraft Center) working on the Apollo Luner Module Landing and Redezvous software programs. This time I was in the control center back-back room during the Apollo 11 landing. My association with Apollo spaned Apollo 7 through Apollo 13.

Very exciting times.

Your Sputnik memories

Frank D. Woodruff Monett, Missouri — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 09:20:11 GMT

I don't know that I was so much shook up that Russia had put Sputnik up as I was watching T.V. and the Rockets being blown up on the launch pad. At that time also we started sending chimps up to check their reaction in space. There was a joke going around at that time that the Astronaut's were complaining about not being sent up and wanted to go up also. So before launch one of the astronaut's was handed a folder of orders and instructed to open it after getting into orbit. After the chimp and astronaut obtained orbit the astronaut read his orders. It said, "Feed the chimp".

Your Sputnik memories

George, Elkhart,IN — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 10:11:37 GMT

How quickly time passes. I recall sitting in my bed room tuning my Hammarlund HQ129X radio to a frequency around 20MHz to listen to the "chirp" sound from Sputnik. I recorded the sounds from the radio onto a Weber wire recorder. Don't know what happened to the spools of wire or the recorder... most likely the junk pile many years ago. As a teenager I didn't think in terms of political impact but it sure was cool to pickup signal from space.

Your Sputnik memories

J.A.B. West Milford, NJ — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 10:53:42 GMT

Back in the 50's my dad managed a drive-in theater in upstate NY. If Sputnik when over during a movie, he stopped the film & announced over the speakers what was happening. Everyone would get out of their cars and stare at the sky. The film would resume when Sputnik passed.

Your Sputnik memories

Bruce, NH — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 11:26:59 GMT

I remember hearing it on a red plastic transistor radio about the size of a 1 inch thick paperback book. I remember exactly where I was standing on our porch at the time it came on the news. I was eight years old and totally horrified that the Russians could do this. I had visions of the Russians orbiting thousands of atomic bombs and then telling them all to fall on us at once. It was also very embarassing to feel second to the Russians. It was one of the worst days of my young life.

Your Sputnik memories

Midge Baker — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:43:50 GMT

I was 6 years old in 1957. I remember the ballyhoo about Sputnik and about how America must prove it is the best by getting to the moon first. I remember watching in fascination as Echo went by overhead. I lived near Los Angeles. I remember the big push for boys (but not girls) to achieve in math and science. I studied them anyway.

I remember duck-and cover. I remember vaguely understanding why it happened. I remember no one EVER telling us it would be ineffective at ground zero.

Years later, at age 12, I discovered Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile science fiction stories. They became my outlet for wanting to be every kond of scientist from A to Z.

Later still, I ventured into wrting myself - Star Trek fan fiction.

Today I am the Reviews Coordinator for a major science fiction website.

Yes, Sputnik was the initial cause of my lifelong interest in science and technology.

Your Sputnik memories

Eric Thatcher, St. Peters, MO — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:02:42 GMT

I was 10 in 1957 and remeber standing outside on cool clear October nights to watch Sputnick pass overhead. My Dad, who was a consumate "futurist," had been passionate about the prospects of space travel and exploration, was very excited and felt vindicated that his predictions to which others had scoffed at for years were finally being realized. From that point on I fervently followed the progress of our space program and that of our Russian counterparts.

Your Sputnik memories

Rick Randall Kalamazoo Mi — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:34:19 GMT

I was 10 years old when sputnik was launched. I remember going out into our back your under a crisp October night and watching a shiny dot in the sky with my dad. To this day this is a time spend with my dad I will alway treasure,

Your Sputnik memories

smb, greenville, south carolina — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:01:42 GMT

Like almost every child, I remember my father taking me outside and pointing to a speeding dot of light high in the dark clear night. "Your world will never be the same," is what my father said to me. At some point near that same time he woke me late at night to show me the northern lights and pointed to the beauty of all that God created. My father is in his eighties now, I am approaching 60. How can I begin to express how different, how wonderful, how terrible, and how small our world became because of that pinpoint of light so long ago. Wishing all of you and all the world the wonder, safety, and love, I feel whenever I think of that long ago night, in the backwater darkness that was South Carolina in that nearly forgotten time.

Your Sputnik memories

Ned Hood, Southern NJ — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:12:37 GMT

I was a 12 yr old boy in Beverly, NJ and watched the first Sputnik pass overhead with my parents that weekend. And I have been watching the night sky ever since. I followed the SPACE RACE daily and, 25 years after we landed on the moon, we could read just how close the USSR came to beating us with their N-1. The benefits of the Space Program are so far reaching it can't be addressed here! Yet, it's all taken for granted today. While the American public seemes to have no serious interest in Space, we should learn from the "surprise" of Sputnik back in 1957....watch the rapid advances of China and Japan.
>>104 Years of Flight - We have come so far!<<

Your Sputnik memories

Pierre Bierre — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:12:39 GMT

I was 7 in Rochester NY. Every space activity from that point on held my rapt attention. The Soviet Union was demonstrating their intellectual prowess. My grandmother had gone there 4 years ealier on a travel tour, and wasn't as shocked.

9 years later, as a junior in high school, new BSCS Biology and PSSC Physics courseware was rolled out, and we lapped it up. The people who rolled up their sleeves after Sputnik to modernize science curriculum deserve tremendous credit. I went into science, and when it became practical in the 80s, computer science.

Now, I'm 57, and gearing up to "give back" to the next generation, whose jolt of motivation should be the race to cheap robotics. The nation first able to automate menial jobs like picking fruit with flex robotics will have unquestionable mojo, and economic leverage.

I'm developing a new way of doing geometry where students write software (Java) to represent geometric objects, and write algorithms to solve problems. My initial high school students found it very powerful, for instance, learning how to program motor coordination in a robot arm, and how a GPS receiver solves for its location. It's called Algorithmic Geometry.

I'm currently reaching out to 9-12 math educators, and philanthropists interested in modernizing geometry curriculum in the US. The impact of Sputnik lives on!

Your Sputnik memories

Franny, South Jersey — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:48:52 GMT

As a young child at that time, my parents had these Christmas decorations for the tree that were spiky, star-burst-like balls, made out of plastic. They were shiny and in metallic colors.

My cousins came to visit at Christmas, and you know how young children like to play and joke around with odd-sounding words. Anyway, we ended up calling those Christmas decorations "Sputniks" and having a grand time laughing and playing with the Russian word - over several years of holidays.

I still have a "Sputnik" or two that have survived all these years in my ornament collection, and each Christmas warmly remember the family fun we had teasing and joking about the Sputniks.

I remember telling my own children as I hung the decorations recently that they were "Sputniks," and of course they had no idea what I was talking about. They had never even heard the word.

I just sent them a link to your story. Thanks for the memories!

Your Sputnik memories

HarryD Lehigh Valley, PA — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:52:41 GMT

I was only five at the time... but I remember being very scared when I heard about the Sputnik launch. Probably from what I heard from my parents.

Your Sputnik memories

Josh, New York, New York — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 18:50:23 GMT

I am, sadly, too young to have witnessed Sputnik or Apollo, but I've still been fascinated with them my whole life. It's interesting to hear about the ways that different people reacted to the news. Here's a Q&A with Sir Arthur C. Clarke where he talks about his reaction: http://spectrum.ieee.org/oct07/5584

Your Sputnik memories

Chuck Schloss — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:14:20 GMT

Here is a different take on Sputnik.

I had just graduated, top of the class, at the Ordnance Guided Missile School at Redstone Arsenal in the summer of 1955 in Huntsville, AL. The Army's Chief of Ordnance assigned me to the Research & Development Division at Redstone. Colonel Miles B. Chatfield commanded the R&D Division and assigned me to be the Project Manager of the Orbiter, the Army's effort to launch the first artificial satellite. Von Braun's GMDD (Guided Missile Development Division) was to be our prime contractor.

Having just completed the 44-week Nike Course at the Ordnance Guided Missile School, I took some leave to bring my family back to see our parents in Denver. Upon return to Redstone, I learned that the Secretary of Defense, Charles Wilson, had cancelled the Army Orbiter project and given it to the Navy.

There was a lot of angst at that time about the roles and missions of the different branches of the service. The Army had a strong program of R&D going, In the Surface to Surface Branch of R&D under Major Dan Breedon were the Honest John, the Little John was in the wings. the Dart missile, the Lacross system, the Corporal Type II was deployed and Type III was in R&D, the Sergeant system was just being authorized. (The Jet Propulsion Laboratories were an Army Lab at tht time and were the designers of the Corporal and Sergeant systems). In the Surface to Air Branch under Major Rudy Axelson was the Nike B (later named Nike Hercules), the Nike Zues (an anti-missile missile) another that I don't remember and then through the GMDD, the Redstone system was being deployed and the GMDD staff were working on the Jupiter, exotic propellants, accurate gyroscopes, re-entry ablative covers for warheads, etc.

The Air Force, had two Intercontental Range Ballistic missile systems, the Titan, here in Denver, and the Atlas. They also had two Intermediate Range Ballistic missiles, the Thor and Centaur (as I recall) in development.

The Navy had an anti-submarine missile system and the Sparrow aircraft missile in R&D, and were feeling very much left out. So, we understood, this was the reason why the Secretary of Defense gave them the project, which they named the Vanguard. The Navy selected the Glen L. Martin Company, a well deserving and experienced contractor of theirs, to design and build the Vanguard.

Martin built a very fine and complex missile, but it was beyond the state of relibility of the components of the time. The Vanguards crashed and burned, crashed and burned. An executive at Martin, and college fraternity brother, later assured me that it did eventually fly.

Meanwhile, back at Redstone Arsenal, Von Braun's GMDD kept working on the Jupiters, getting some funding from other projects in the Army's R&D programs. Then Major General Bruce Medaris was assigned to head up a new organization, the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which subsumed von Braun's GMDD. General Medaris out-ranked Brigider General Toftoy who had put the German scientists from Penemunde together and brought them to the USA, first to White Sands Proving Ground then later moving them to Redstone. ABMA had a lot more clout and now Von Braun's group had the money to proceed.

They built a Jupiter C, a Redstone missile with a spinning second and third stage of scaled-down solid propellant Sergeant engines (buile by Thiokol at Redstone) and launched this in September 20th 1956. The last stage could have gone into orbit and beat the Soviets by over a year, but we understood that General Medaris felt that it was not the politically correct thing to do, to upstage the Navy. So the last stage engine was filled with sand. The launch went well, the dummy last stage impacted in the South Atlantic, about 3550 miles from Canaveral.

I had left the Army, resigned my commission, and was sitting in traffic on Pershing Road in Downtown Chicago on my way to work. It was a cold and drizzling day. Stopped on my right side was a truckload of pigs going to slaughter, when one pig urinated out through the slats of the truck and all over the hood and windshield of my car. There was nothing I could do but turn on the windshield wipers, as I sat there, listening to Sputnik, with tears streaming down my face - knowing that it didn't have to be this way, we could have beat them by over a year.

Your Sputnik memories

Bryan Price, Jacksonville, FL — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:16:15 GMT

I still had 2 1/2 months to go until I was out of my mother's womb! I'm post Sputnik!

Your Sputnik memories

Sue Langdon - Albuquerque, New Mexico — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 20:02:00 GMT

I was only 3 in 1957. I don't remember the day or the events. What I remember is a short burst of noise on a tape recorder. My Dad, a ham radio operator and early electronics technician/enthusiast, found the signal being sent out by Sputnik, and recorded it.

My young mind couldn't grasp the significance of the noise. It was not unlike lots of other noises coming out of my Dad's radios. I knew he was sure excited, though.

The local paper ran an article, and I think the tape may have been played on the local broadcast radiostations.

I went on to be more and more aware of the space program. I watched each mission, grieved for the failures, and cheered for the successes. Always in the back of my mind, though, is that short burst of noise. I feel pretty proud to have been witness to the birth of new technology!

Your Sputnik memories

Chris Eldridge — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 20:52:55 GMT

I've always wondered if the Soviet leaders even knew what Korelev was planning... Could Korelev just been sneaky and say he needed a tracking probe for ICBM research while all along knowing he would launch a space race? Sometimes leaders are reluctant to do such tests if they fall outside of the range of simple MIRV delivery... not sure... just wonder how? what? when? where? and for what reasons? such decisions were made. If Korelev hadn't died during minor surgery, they may have very well beaten us to the moon as well. They certainly had the rocket to do it but not the plumbing master to make it work for more than a few minutes. IT DID FLY... just not far enough. Anyway...

Your Sputnik memories

Bill Norr, Flemington, NJ. — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 21:18:19 GMT

I was 11 years old when the Sputnik was launched. I remember waiting in my back yard with my parents and neighbors to see the satellite move across the sky in the early night. I saw it several times as a slow moving, slowly blinking star. It took about 30 seconds to fly completely across the sky. We stood there in awe. There were some comments about the Russians spying on us and how they had bombs in the satellite. My grandmother said that they were reaching too close to God and he was going to slap them down. But mostly, I remember the fascination and the feeling: "Wow!".

Sometimes my father and I would run inside and tune our shortwave radio to the frequency the satellite was using and we'd listen to the steady "Beep..Beep...Beep" as it went overhead.

I was too young to understand the politics very much but I remember everyone in school talking about the Sputnik the day after it was launched. It was very hard to accept the fact that Russia had beaten us into space.

Your Sputnik memories

Don Christie — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 21:27:06 GMT

I was seven years old when Sputnik was launched. I recall the adults being concerned about it. Myself and the other children did not have a clear understanding of what was happening except that the Russians has put something in the sky and it bothered the grown ups.
My Dad worked for Mcdonnell Douglas and some of their sub contractors as a machinist. It was not uncommon for him and his friends to discuss the various aircraft and space craft being built. Within a few years I was very interested in the space program and followed it like some people follow baseball. Chuck Yeager, Allan Shephard and John Glenn were my heroes.
I remember going out at night and looking for satelites. As I recall I expected them to have plently of detail not a tiny moving star. The first Satelite I recall seeing was the Echo balloon that the US put in orbit.

Your Sputnik memories

Steve, Rochester,MN — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 21:28:27 GMT

I was 8, living in North Dakota (ground zero because of all the missle sites located there) and remember all the "duck and cover" drills we went through. My Dad, a colonel in SAC, was put on alert immediatly and things were very tense.
For me and my brother, 7, it was a wonder to behold. We set up our telescope so we could watch it but remember being disapointed because Sputnik traveled too fast to focus on. Still, we were out every night for nearly a week watching it move silently across the sky.
I also remember the intoduction of "New Math" that we suddenly were forced to learn. It didn't make any sense then and still doesn't today. Like "No child Left Behind", it was governments inept attempt at education.
Two good things that were a direct result of Sputnik - the blue, sugar coated bubble gum and the song Telestar - hearing it takes me back a long ways!

Your Sputnik memories

Pat Worden, Gurnee, IL — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 21:31:56 GMT

I was six when Sputnik was launched. I can remember my parents were really excited. But the main thing I remember about the launch was that someone dropped a puppy off in front of our house the same night. My parents took her in and named her Sputnik! She was our family dog until she past away twelve years later.

Your Sputnik memories

Tom Teteak, Plymouth, Wisconsin — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:13:43 GMT

I was five years old when the news of Sputnik broke. My parents were worried that the Russians beat us. They worried that the Russians were more technologically advanced than the US. What else will the Russians come up with to beat the US. Then when Sputnik broke up and fell to earth a piece of it actually landed in my home town of Manitowoc, Wisconsin. It made a hole in the asphalt pavement on North 8th street in front of the Rahr Museum in Manitowoc. A pole with a plaque was erected marking the spot where a piece of Sputnik landed. The pole and plaque are gone with the spot paved over. Sputnik made a big impact on a 5 year old growing up on the shores of Lake Michigan. Sputnik was one of the first times that I could recall the other guy winning and causing worry among my family. The plaque never let us forget that fact for many years.

Your Sputnik memories

Tom, Flagstaff, AZ — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 23:20:28 GMT

That evening I went to Miss Comer's dance school for well-to-do white people in Westport CT. I was a week away from turning 12. There was some talk about Sputnik, but most of all I remember another boy telling me I needed to get some chewing gum because my breath smelled.

Your Sputnik memories

Carl Staib, Spokane,Wa. — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:03:10 GMT

One morning, Oct. 17th or the 25th '57 I believe, a friend and I were north bound on Hwy. 2 out of Spokane, Wa. to go hunting. The sun was just rising out of the East and here comes this shining thing South bound right above us. We were listing to a Spokane radio station just after it passed over and they were telling their listening audience to go outside to get a look at Spudnik going over in just a few seconds. I remember that day well.

Your Sputnik memories

Hunter Scott — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:22:33 GMT

I was 9 years old when Sputnik was launched. We were either visiting my grandparents when the launch was announced, or visited them within days of the event. I remember seeing the story about it on the news, including that strange pinging sound, at my grandparent's house. Later that evening, my family sat around a table playing cards while discussing it. It all sounded very ominous, but I didn't really understand much of the conversation. Later, I was required to go to bed in a bedroom at the back of the house, far away from the rest of the family. It was a room that had windows all around, almost like a screened in porch. My family stayed up playing cards until the wee hours as was their habit. I soon became so scared that this thing called Sputnik could see me through the windows and was going to come and get me, that I pulled the covers over my head and tried to be as still as I could so Sputnik might not see me. That was about as scared as I remember ever being. I'll never forget exactly where I was and what I was doing when Sputnik first cruised the heavens, looking for children to steal and take back to it's den for a midnight snack. That pinging sound still brings back the chills.

Your Sputnik memories

Jim Klang, Wheaton, IL — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:40:36 GMT

Sputnik was a shock. No doubt about it. We smug Americans thought we were no. 1 in everything, but this notion was dispelled by a beep-beep raining down from the sky on October 4, 1957.

I was 11 and very much interested in science and all the advancing technology of the day that science fiction could muster. I dutifully watched Mr. Wizard. I always read about jet speed records and how good our planes would be against those hapless Russians.

Then came Sputnik. Out went the confidence and in came questions about how the USA could have fallen so far behind in this key technology. The Russians not only had rockets, but big rockets that could obviously deliver their big weapons anywhere on earth.

We were told that our space program was not military like the Russians and that our scientists would shortly use a rocket that looked like a rifle bullet to launch a satellite.

That day came in early December. Anticipation was high. Every TV channel had its cameras on this sleek design standing proudly on its launch pad. It had to work. The Russians had followed their initial triumph with a huge satellite containing a dog. The countdown came down to zero, the Vanguard rocket ignited, rose a few feet and fell back into a fireball of American failure. This was just two months after the Russians had launched Sputnik and we were not only behind, but total failures for all the world to witness. Would anything in our technical arsenal work? Would we eventially have to concede domination to the evil Soviet empire?

Within a month, I was selected to participate in a science program at a local university. They let kids loose in the chemistry labs to create instant rocket scientists. They would fill the technical gap where Mr. Wizard had obviously failed.

Soon I was reading every scientific article and making amateur rockets. My friends and I each had a lab in our basements, with no idea what we were doing. All we wanted to do was make something blow up or go up, because that was where the action was. We were lucky to have survived.

Eventially, the US launched a satellite with the help of a jury-rigged Jupiter C rocket put together by Werner von Baun using spare military rocket parts. The small satellite actually did some science in orbit, so we took heart that at least our small electronics was superior.

But the Russians continued to thumb their noses at the US efforts. They launched probes to the moon and beyond. They eventually launched a man into space and retrieved him. Why couldn't we catch up?

The Apollo program finally showed that we could do something the Russians couldn't do--spend more money than they could ever muster to go to the moon. We bought our way out of technical inferiority in space.

We cheered when the moon landing happened, but it was not until 12 years after Sputnik--years of thinking the Russians would keep beating us in every space event.

Those years of uncertaintly kept me into the field of science. While I would have loved to be a rocket scientist, that never happened. I do more mundane technical work and still dream of the roar of rocket engines and the knowledge that comes from probes fired into our strange universe.

That is the legacy of Sputnik. That we continue to look for the things that excite us in the sky. That our young people want to be a part of the adventure. That we feel a pride in accomplishing tasks that add to the reservoir of human knowledge. And that we do it before those Russians.

I still look up into the October sky and remember when it all started. Beep, beep, beep!

Your Sputnik memories

Mary Gill, Sacramento, CA — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:41:19 GMT

I was eleven. My father took me outside late at night to see the Sputnik satellite go over. We saw it! But we also saw a string of lights snaking through the sky. My Dad was a radar man in WWII, he stared and stared and then told me we had just seen a UFO. He was NOT given to such statements; the next day there was a story in the paper about the sighting of the unexplained string of lights. I'll never forget it!

Your Sputnik memories

JoAnne Roberts, Mercerville, NJ — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:57:59 GMT

I was born on Oct 7, 1957 and my parents had the foresight to save and give to me the Life Magazine issued on October 7, 1957 highlighting the Sputnik. Whata year!

Your Sputnik memories

Jerry Giddens,Sylacauga,Al — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 01:05:46 GMT

I remember this event well.The rush was on for me and my friends to pick up the radio signal sputnik was sending.I had a tabletop shortwave receiver I used.

Your Sputnik memories

Lori Allison Billings Montana — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 02:07:17 GMT

The town of Winona Minnesota on the mighty Mississippi River, kept us informed of danger by the use of air raid sirens. My big brother Jay was in civil defense training when I was in grade school. I did not see the Sputnik but recall it being the talk of the town still 10 yrs. after it launched, when I was 10. In 1965 the air raid sirens went off and our school thought "the Russians are bombing us" and we all were let out of class to go "straight home." No one knowing what really was happening. It turned out to be the biggest flood the town had with the Mississippi busting through dikes and into the midst of the city! Sputnik set off a major mind set of fear that the greatest county in the world really could be invaded. Then came 9-11 when no one was looking.

I've always been interested in space because of all the media on the 'race for space' since Sputnik's launch to the present. My most memorable moment was hearing "this is one giant leap for mankind" as America's Neil Armstrong set his foot down on the moon.

Your Sputnik memories

Joseph Andorfer — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 02:07:32 GMT

I had just started 1st grade two months before October 1957. I remember standing outside with my dad on what seemed like an unusually warm October night in Fairbury, Illinois, hoping to spot Sputnik as it transited the sky. We saw something moving majestically against the stars, but whether or not it was Sputnik or its booster rocket we never found out for sure. The space race and the arms race were both on. That Christmas I received a bunch of books about space by Willy Ley, a map of the solar system, and a toy model of an ICBM rocket launcher. By the spring of my 1st grade year, my elementary school had received a whole bunch of new scientific equipment - mostly laboratory glassware and chemicals - which would be put into use starting with the 4th grade. I couldn't get to 4th grade fast enough! By the spring of my second grade year, I remember having a conversation about the Russian space-dog Laika with a cute little red-haired girl who conned me into sharing with her my ride on the mechanical pony outside the supermarket, by letting her go first. By the time our conversation was over so was the ride and I was out a nickel and still hadn't ridden the pony. But she was awfully pretty - and smart, too - so I didn't mind too much! By the spring of my 3rd grade year, we were starting to practice air raid drills in my elementary school, and seeing prefab bomb-shelters for sale at the larger hardware stores.

Your Sputnik memories

Irina Hynes, Brookfield, Illinois — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 03:27:16 GMT

My mother grew up in the Soviet Union. There was not much to eat then and families lived in cramped quarters, so she never really learned how to cook. One day at our home in Madison, Wisconsin, in the 1970s, she tried her hand at making an appetizer for party guests that involved cubes of cheese. She covered some circular shape with foil which she then pierced with cheese-holding toothpicks. Beholding her creation, she suddenly exclaimed: "Sputnik!" (Russian pronounciation, spootnik).

Your Sputnik memories

Jerry Schutte, Cincinnati Ohio — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:19:15 GMT

I was 7 years old at the time of Sputnik I remember the hold neighbor coming old at night and looking for in the sky at night and went they found it going overhead. It was the amazement of the parent that got me. I did not understand all that was going on put I new it was a major event.

Your Sputnik memories

Des Emery, St. Thomas, ON, Canada — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 04:45:01 GMT

Reports of the launch of Sputnick ("little potato") was received in Canada with mild fanfare. As an outside party observing both the USA and Russia we had little doubt about the general and specific superiority of the Americans. Although I must admit we found "duck and cover" to be somewhat a useless exercise, and very few backyard bomb shelters were built up here.

Sputnick's publicity did however overwhelm the announcement of the Avro Arrow's successful flight at the same time in that October. But Canada's success in designing and building the jet-powered fighter aircraft (expected to keep the Russian hordes on the other side of the North Pole sufficiently intimidated to make them want to stay home) was deemed to be "too expensive" for little Canada to flaunt (think of a Lear jet long before there were Lear jets) and the entire project was canceled by the then Government.

The Avro engineers and scientists picked up and left for the States and NASA and helped to put a man on the moon within a few years. The remnants of the Canadian force which stayed here continued to work and if you look carefully you sometimes see the Canadarm on the space station, working as shoulder, elbow and hand extension of the astronauts there. It will be joined there by the latest development, a "wrist" component wandering along the arm to work where needed.

And all because of a 'little potato.'

Your Sputnik memories

David Barden, Birmingham, AL — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 13:31:20 GMT

I was in the first grade, when Sputnik was launched. I was already interested in astronomy and my father told me that mankind had opened the door to the greatest adventure of mankind. We watched the third stage booster, that launched the satellite, pass overhead, several nights. I was a science nut, from then on, closely following the American and Russian space programs. I am still an amateur astronomer and I have read volumes of material and done endless research into the American and Russian space programs. James Oberg has given me many insights into the manned space program. His books on the Russian space program are excellent. I have relatives that work for NASA. Sad to say, America, and our government, does not have the interest in manned space exploration, any longer. I believe that when the space shuttles are retired, funding for the Orion and Ares manned space programs, that will replace the Shuttle, will disappear. That sense of adventure and the enormous rewards, of a manned mission to Mars, or beyond, is no longer in America. I see unmanned robots as the means of future space exploration. I do hope that our education system, in America, will improve as it is no longer capable of giving us the abilities to achieve space science, on the scale that we had during the times of Apollo. The future is bleak, where manned space exploration is concerned. Space exploration, by robotic spacecraft, will be the future. If I could make decisions, as to our future in space, I would strongly fund future manned exploration efforts. May we all hope that funding for space sciences, especially manned space exploration, continue at a strong pace.

Your Sputnik memories

Joe Frasketi Jr., SW Florida USA — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 19:43:48 GMT

I was coming back from a mountain climb on the island of Saint Lucia in the British West Indies when i learned about the Sputnik satellite in orbit. We had "lost" one of our team members on the climb down the mountain and went back to the missile tracking station near Vieux Fort, where i lived and worked to see about getting a search party organized.

You can read about this and see one of the Sputnik anniversary covers (envelopes) I issued in 1977 for this event, postmarked Russia Ohio, by going to mywebpage
(clicking on my name below)

Your Sputnik memories

Charles P. Johnston — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 21:08:02 GMT

I was sitting in the captain's chair on the bridge of the USS Chevalier DDR-805 moored at the dock in Melbourne Australia when I saw a star moving up and across the sky at about a 35 degree angle. I immediately threw the girl from Tasmania off my lap, grabbed the large binoculars permantly attached to the railing of the bridge deck and saw what looked like a chrome-plated basketball traveling though the sky. We in the crypto gang had been warned to be watching for something but nobody seemed to know what it would be. "This is it!", I thought. I raced down to the radio shack thinking that, if it was broadcasting, it had to be an ultrahigh frequency to penatrate the ionsophere and would probably be on a bank we (the Navy) were not using or hadn't used in a long time. We had several old UHF receivers in Radio Central which had seen better days. I fired up two of them and began to search through the five bands that each had. On the second band I heard a sound that I had never heard before and could never have imagined: four beeps in lowering tones repeated over and over. I immediately patched this into a tape recorder then into the ship PA system after which I called the Officer of the Deck telling him to get the "Old Man" back to the ship ASAP. He did not, to my surprise, question why probably sensing the urgency in my voice. The captain (Healy, I think) arrived mad as a wet hen and stormed up to the radio shack and burst in the door demanding to know what was going on. When he heard what I had to say and listened to the sounds (which, by then had changed to four more but different beeps), he immediately ordered a couriour to fly the tape up to the Naval base in Pearl Harbor which I am told was sent to London's Jodrell Bank for analysis. It turned out to be the Sputnik and we got a commendation (a "Well Done") from Admiril Ulysess S. Grant, Commander of the Pacific Seventh Fleet. I never did tell the Admiral about the girl from Tasmania whom I had totally forgotten about in the excitement.

Your Sputnik memories

Jishnu Nambissan,Chelembra,Kerala,India — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 00:14:47 GMT

I'm not a boy born in 1950,60's etc.I was born in 1993.So I'm quite young.I wish to say that Sputnik is fantastic.I know the space race and i'm interested in space science.I manitain a website too on Space science.My father was born in 1958 and he often tells me about the excitements of Appollo .I wish If i could have some friends interested in Space science.

Your Sputnik memories

Rich Farrell, Renton, Washington — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:15:59 GMT

Sputnik was launched while I was a sophmore at Iowa State College (now Iowa State University). My previous technology high point had been about eight years before Sputnik, when electricity finally arrived at our Iowa farm. After helping Dad with the wiring, we no longer had to use a kerosene lantern to read after the sun had set. And low batteries no longer meant we kids would miss hearing Jack Benny or the Lone Ranger.

A man-made satellite was obviously a major technology advance over wiring a house and cow barn. When my Iowa State physics professor, Dr. Percy Carr, announced his intention to photograph Sputnik as it pased overhead I immediately volunteered to assist. The spot of light drifting across the night sky was fascinating, but more than matched by the amazing sounds coming from his short wave radio. Something he referred to casually as "WWV" was apparently transmitting precise time marks!

We were of course taking long time exposures to show the flight path of Sputnik across the night sky. By holding the lens cap briefly over the camera lens at specific WWV time marks, our photos showed gaps at those points in the flight path. Our photos could then be used with photos being collected in other parts of Iowa that night to compute the orbit of Sputnik.

After 33 years at Boeing in Seattle that included work on numerous NASA contracts, I still treasure my copies of our Sputnik photos and my memories of those hours spent with Dr. Carr under a star-filled Iowa sky.

Your Sputnik memories

Clarence Tudor....Mortons Gap, KY 42440 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:32:06 GMT

I just found this site and find it very interesting.
My experience...I was a member of an Army Security Agency unit in Oct., 1957. We were at Wildwood Station, Alaska and our assignment was to monitor the Russian Space Agency. Our trick was working when Sputnik #1 was launched. We didn't know what was going on until next day...just knew something exciting was happening.
In November a group of us was sent to the island of Shemya, Alaska and was working when #2 was launched.
Hard to believe that has been 52 years ago...!!!