50th Anniversary of Sputnik

Pioneered by the Soviet Union, Sputnik 1 ignited the space race On October 4th, 1957 becoming the world's first artificial satellite taking a total of 98 minutes to orbit the Earth. The Sputnik program raised alarm across the globe as it feared that the USSR would soon be able to launch Nuclear weapons from space. This ushered the U.S into the Space Race with the launch of the Explorer satellites and later the formation of NASA.