International Geophysical Year
The idea to launch a satellite into orbit was not the Soviets’, but was the International Council of Scientific Unions’. The International Geophysical Year, July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958, was the best time to launch a satellite because cycles of solar activity were at high point. The plans for Sputnik have been reported and publicly acknowledged prior to the launch, so it was not surprising.
World's First SatelliteSputnik 1 , the world's first artificial satellite, was launched on October 4, 1957 in the Kazakh Republic.
It
weighed 183.9 pounds and was 22.8 inches in diameter. The satellite made a beeping noise as it orbited the Earth, which it did every 98 minutes.
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R-7 Rocket
American scientists carefully studied Sputnik 1 and used what they learned for future space exploration projects, such as Explorer 1. Scientists also studied the rocket that was used to launch the world's first satellite. The rocket, called R--7, exemplified Konstantin Tsiokovsky's rocket principles, which are still used to this very day with modern space shuttles.