No photograph is shown for this exhibition. The museum displays an image only where it can show the object honestly.
About this date
The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957. The United States launched Explorer 1 on 31 January 1958.
About credit
The Soviet programme was a collective effort kept secret during Korolev’s life, so he was not publicly named until after his death in 1966.
Chapter II
The world before
Life before the Artificial Satellite
No human-made object had orbited the Earth.
II
The human achievement
How it came about
Sputnik 1, about 58 cm in diameter, orbited for three months. Telstar 1 relayed the first live transatlantic television in 1962. Communication, weather and GPS satellites followed.
III
Understanding the invention
How it works
The Artificial Satellite, explained in two steps.
01
Step 01 of 02
Falling around the Earth
A satellite moves sideways so fast that as it falls toward the Earth it keeps missing it.
Falling around the Earth
Rocket staging
IV
The transformation
What changed for humanity
Communication
Television and phone calls across oceans.
Science
Satellites monitor weather and climate.
Satellites now provide communications, weather forecasting, navigation and Earth observation.
V
Before and after
Life before and after The Artificial Satellite
Before
Ground observations.
After
Images from orbit.
On larger screens, drag the divider (or use the arrow keys) to give more room to the world before or after.
VI
Its legacy
What came after
MHI 088
The Artificial Satellite
Beyond the collection
GPS
A constellation of satellites.
Beyond the collection
Human spaceflight
Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth on 12 April 1961.
VII
Human stories
The people and the moments
The beeps heard around the world
Amateur radio operators across the globe picked up Sputnik’s signal in 1957, making the first space-age event one that anyone with a receiver could hear.
Where accounts differ, this museum follows the documented record and says so.