Sputnik

On October 4th, 1957, the day that AVRO rolled out RL201, the Russians launched a satellite, called Sputnik.

With Sputnik sending out its beeps, as it orbited the Earth, it became the number one news story, shadowing AVRO's rollout of the Arrow. Sputnik also changed the American/Canadian political/military outlook towards missiles to defend against attack from missiles and space weapons.

Sputnik 1  was about the size of a basketball, weighed only 183 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. Sputnik 1 was the world's first artificial satellite in that it was the first human-made object to orbit the Earth.

Sputnik Stamp 1957 - U.S.S.R.

Pravada's "Announcement of the First Satellite", October 5, 1957 (NASA)

Audio of Sputnik's telemetry (NASA) (.wav file)

NASA's Sputnik and The Dawn of the Space Age

Micheal Wrights's Sputnik: First Artificial Satellite. Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Space Age.

Soviet Scientists Describe the First Sputnik

Sputnik's Legacy

PBS's Online Focus "The Sputnik Effect: The Space Race Revisited", Newshour transcript, 2 October, 1997. RealAudio version.
A background report on the Sputnik Launch.

The Eisenhower Archives has an extensive list of documents available online "Sputnik and the Space Race"

Noel Casados's Sputnik "Fellow Traveler" from 40 years ago.

NSSDC Master Catalog Spacecraft - Sputnik 1

Roy Welch, W0SL (then W5SLL in 57), recorded Sputnik's signal in Dallas Texas, using a Military surplus AN/FRR3A HF RTTY receiver. The frequency was 20.007 MHz, very close to WWV's 20.000 MHz. WWV shut down their transmitters during some passes on 7 October, 1957, during which Roy recorded the signals. Audio clips are in WAV or RealAudio formats. AMSAT's First Satellite's Audio clips

Sputnik History

Sputnik 40 or RS-17: A 1/3 sized replica of Sputnik launched from space station MIR, November 1997, to celebrate the 40th birthday of Sputnik. Sputnik 40 had a 200 mW beacon on 145.812 MHz. There is audio of the beacon and a video of the launch on the webpage.

Sputnik 41 or RS-18: A 1/3 sized replica of Sputnik hand launched from space station MIR, November 1998. Sputnik 41 had a 200 mW transmitter on 145.812 MHz. Two messages in three languages, including Sputnik 1's "beep-beep". There is audio of the beacons on the webpage. The batteries were expected to last one month.

Space.com's Sputnik 1: The Satellite That Started It All by Leonard David, 4 October, 2002.

Wall Street History - Sputnik, 1957, by Brian Trumbore

Science Friday: Sputnik: Forty years after the little beeping ball. 3 October, 1997. Includes the program in RealAudio.

US Army Signal Research and Development Laboratory track Sputnik from Camp Evans