Sputnik beeps over the world

A 58 cm polished metal sphere transmitted a simple beep from orbit; anyone with a receiver could hear it pass overhead.

Why it matters

The space age and the modern research state began together: NASA, DARPA, and a generation of engineers motivated by a beeping ball. Its ICBM booster was the same technology that made mutually assured destruction real.

People

Sergei Korolev

Related events

• 1969

  Apollo 11 lands on the Moon

  Four days after launch, Armstrong and Aldrin flew the LM Eagle to Tranquility Base with about 30 seconds of fuel margin; Collins waited in orbit.

  Exploration

• 1969

  ARPANET sends its first packets

  The first node at UCLA attempted to log in to a machine at SRI; the system crashed after 'LO' — but packet switching worked, and the network grew.

  Communication · americas

• 1901

  Marconi signals across the Atlantic

  Guglielmo Marconi's system received the letter S in Morse code at St John's, Newfoundland — the first transatlantic wireless transmission.

  Communication

Sources

• NASA — Sputnik 1