Sputnik +50

Fifty years ago today the Russians launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik [later Sputnik I]. Westerners didn’t see t he actual launching. Russians didn’t see it either. The Soviet regime waited until the thing was successfully up before they told the world. But word got around. I remember going out in the back yard a few days later with my father and brother and looking for and watching it to go by. I also remember that there were stories about how its radio signals had opened some garage doors. Suddenly it seemed necessary for everybody to learn math and science. [It is worth noting that the first U.S. satellite was up a few months later, so we couldn’t have been THAT far behind. I remember making a model of that first American satellite later.]

I guess that some people thought the Soviets were winning the Cold War. Somehow it seems strange looking at it now. They did get the first satellite up and they did put the first man in space and brought him back alive [Yuri Gagarin, 1961 – and they waited until they got him back before they told anybody] but we are still the only country which has actually sent anybody out of the planet’s gravity and we haven’t done that in the lifetime of most people living now.

The Soviet Union is gone. Satellites have brought us satellite dishes, cell phones, and radio and television from almost anywhere instantly. Without them we wouldn’t have credit cards at gas pumps, GPS systems, or the internet. [And without Sputnik Mickey’s wouldn’t have a name for its specialty burger.]

The Commies may have gotten the first thing up, but it sure looks like capitalism has won that war.