Sputnik 1 & The Explorer!

Sputnik 1 was the worlds first artificial satellite, which represented a milestone for all man kind. It was launched on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched it. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball, weighed only 83.6 kg. or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. They wanted to launch Sputnik because they wanted to do something that would put them at the top, take the United States off guard, and ultimately to look evidentually superior to the United States, technologically. The Sputnik launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race. The Soviets' launch of Sputnik came as a surprise to the United States. The Space Race had dawned on us that our Cold War rival, the Soviet Union, was appearing as technologically superior to us. So immediately after the Sputnik I launch in October, the U.S. Defense Department responded to the political furor by approving funding for another U.S. satellite project because we the United States needed to "one up" them and make our own interpretation of their Sputnik. The United States first attempt at launching their own satellite was unsuccessful when its Vanguard rocket exploded during lift-off. But they did not give up hope and decided to try again and so, finally on January 31, 1958, a Jupiter-C rocket sent Explorer 1 into orbit. This let everyone know, including our rivals the Soviet Union, that the Space Race was underway.

Differences between the two satellites were that Sputnik was more than twice the size of a basketball, which made it much larger and heavier than Explorer. Only the "striped section" of Explorer contained the payload, while the rear half was a solid-fuel rocket motor. Another difference was that Sputnik's sphere was polished to aid in tracking by telescope and the Explorer's light and dark stripes helped control its temperature. Also, despite Sputnik's streamlined appearance, it trembled and tumbled while in orbit when the Explorer spun about its long axis, which extended its four flexible antennas. And last but not least, Sputnik contained two radio transmitters, which sent back the "beep-beep-beep"heard all around the world. While the Explorer contained a cosmic ray detector, radio transmitter, and temperature and micrometeroid sensors. Well, that's it for the launch of Sputnik and the Explorer 1! (: