A Look Back to the First Artificial Satellite

The Space Age was born when the first artificial satellite was launched by the Soviets to circle the globe. The satellite that was named Sputnik started changes to everyday life that people most often take for granted such as the shows we see on the television, the way we communicate with each other and the method by which we pay for what we buy.

Faced with a threat of a Soviet-dominated space, the US government increased tenfold the money allotted for science, education and research. Sputnik was first associated with a space future consisting of gigantic space stations and colonies on the moon and other planets with fears of space warfare raining down on earth. History would attest that such expectations did not come to pass but instead changes for the better were seen on a scale that has not been previously imagined.