The first Earth satellite: radio signals heard
Russians’ success: circling world every 95 minutes
5 October 1957
The Tass agency announced last night that the first artificial Earth satellite was successfully launched in Russia yesterday. It is now circling the world 565 miles up once every 95 minutes and, according to the agency, can be observed in the rays of the rising and setting sun with ordinary binoculars or spy glasses.
The agency said: “The satellite is now revolving round the Earth along an elliptical trajectory at the estimated height of up to 900 km. It is in the form of a sphere 58cm (23in) in diameter, weighs 83.6 kg (180lb), and carries a radio transmitter.”
It was launched from a carrier rocket, which, the agency said, had imparted to it the required orbital velocity of about 8,000 metres a second. Its orbit is inclined at an angle of 65 degrees to the equatorial plane. To-day, it was stated, it would pass twice over the Moscow area, at 1 46am and 6 42 am.
Radio signals
Its radio transmitters will be continuously giving out signals at 15 and 7.5 metre wavelengths, which can be received “by a broad range of amateurs. The signals are of the nature of telegraph signals at about 0.3 seconds duration with a pause of the same duration.”
Some reports of these signals were received early to-day. Reuter’s radio station near London reported hearing them on the wavelength of 15 metres. The signal consisted of a regular series of rapid radio beats of equal duration, similar to morse “dashes.” RCA communications, a subsidiary of the Radio Corporation of America, later reported that it had also heard signals. BBC engineers in Kent also picked on the signals.
Tass, quoted by Moscow Radio, said the launching of the satellite was part of the programme of International Geophysical Year. Scientific stations at various points in Russia are conducting observations and determining its precise trajectory. The agency said that because of the tremendous velocity of the satellite at the end of its existence it would burn up on reaching the denser layers of the atmosphere.
Several more
During the Geophysical Year, it was added, the Soviet Union proposed launching several more artificial satellites, which would be of bigger size and weight and would serve to carry out an extensive programme of scientific research. Artificial satellites would pave the way to interplanetary travel, and “it appears that people of our generation will live to see emancipated and cultured growth of man of the new Socialist society turn humanity’s oldest dream into reality.”
No advance announcement had been made of the launching plan, and it appears the Russian Academy of Sciences has been waiting until the satellite was successfully launched before revealing the achievement.
The United States, the only other country which intends to launch an Earth satellite in connection with the IGY already has held two tests of components of the three-stage rocket which will carry its satellite into space. But four other tests still are in prospect before the United States will be ready to launch it.
The White House, when it announced the satellite programme in 1955, said the American satellite would have a speed of 18,000 mph, would circle the Earth every 90 minutes, andwould fly between 200 and 300 miles above the Earth’s surface. Dr Joseph Kaplan, chairman of the United States National Committee for IGY, commenting on the Soviet achievement, said in Washington last night:
I am amazed that in the short time which they had to plan – obviously not any longer than we had – they should have made such a remarkable achievement. From the point of view of international cooperation the important thing is that a satellite has been launched. They did it and did it first. I hope they give us enough information so that our moon-watch teams can learn the scientific benefits.
“Fantastic”
On the Moscow reports that the satellite weighed about 1801b, he said: “This is really fantastic. If they can launch that they can launch much heavier ones.” American officials to Washington said that the Russians might have used a modification of the inter-continental ballistics missiles whose existence they announced recently to fire the satellite into space. Prof LV Berkner, one of the leaders of the United States satellite group said: This opens a new era in science.”
Editorial: Next stop Mars?
7 October 1957
Thinkers, technicians, and manufacturers [in Russia] must have been given their fullest scope. Their achievement is immense. It demands a psychological adjustment on our part towards Soviet society, Soviet military capabilities, and – perhaps most of all – to the relationship of the world with what is beyond.
The barriers of imagination which most of us erect between ourselves and those distant places where red dust is blown about the surfaces of strange planets, or where there is no sun, no touch, no gravity, nothing, have now been breached. We must be prepared to be told what the other side of the moon looks like, or how thick the cloud on Venus may be.
But it does not follow that Mars is now only a short step away. Return tickets through space will be on sale only when huge rockets can be built with more than a thousand times as much energy as the Russian one.
If Mars is still distant, what of Russia’s war capacity on Earth? There little doubt can remain. The Russians can now build ballistic missiles capable of hitting any chosen target anywhere in the world. They may or may not have already, but the ability to do so must exist. The ballistic missile needed to take their satellite into the upper atmosphere and above must be at least powerful enough to carry a warhead to Texas or Okinawa or wherever else its designers choose.
This is an edited extract. Read the article in full.
Restrained Russian pride in achievement: little boasting of beating US
By Victor Zorza
8 October 1957
Soviet press comment on the satellite is notable for its tone of level-headed, almost restrained, pride in the achievement of Soviet scientists. This is coupled with self-praise for the social system which made this achievement possible, and with only an occasional reminder that Russia has beaten the United States to it.
The Pravda leading article, for instance, does not take it upon itself to drive this particular lesson home. It is content merely to point out that “many foreign scientists and newspapers emphasise that Soviet scientists have won in peaceful competition with the United States.”
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