quote: the first artificial satellite was launched October 4, 1957. and it wasn’t american. the soviet made sputnik, weighing about 183 lbs., took about 98 minutes to orbit the earth on its elliptical path, 500 miles up. traveling at 18,000 miles an hour, sputnik would “beep, beep, beep” it’s telemetry as it passed over. americans were mortified. this was scary stuff. people thought that the russkies were going to be dropping bombs from the sky. and the news just got worse. a month later, the soviets launched sputnik II, which weighed 1100 pounds and carried a live dog, laika. americans scientists were scrambling to catch up. in december they launched vanguard. which went between 2 and 4 feet up and promptly burst into a ball of fire. our satellite was thrown clear which was as close to travel as it got.