on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The worlds first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (58 cm.or 22.8 inches in diameter), weighed only 83.6 kg. or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. Sputnik itself provided scientists with valuable information. The density of the upper atmosphere could be deduced from its drag on the orbit, and the propagation of its radio signals gave information about the ionosphere. The signals continued for 22 days until the transmitter batteries ran out on 26 October 1957. Sputnik 1 burned up on 4 January 1958, as it fell from orbit upon reentering Earths atmosphere, after travelling about 70 million km (43.5 million miles) and spending 3 months in orbit.
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 04:54:40 +0000
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