Singing Satellites and Sounding Birds

Abstract

History changed on October 4th 1957 when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite, and sent the first man-made object in orbit around Earth. Only one month later the Russians launched a second satellite, this time with a living passenger onboard – the famous space dog Laika. When the satellite reentered into earth’s atmosphere 162 days later, Laika had already been dead for a long time. The following year, the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, became the first human to journey into outer space and NASA was founded. The accelerating space race between the Soviet Union and the US was a fact and became a crucial component of the cold war era.