Baton Rouge Astronomical Society Forum

Today is the sixty-first anniversary of this launch. I can only imagine the chill that went through the minds of Americans went they heard the news... Sputnik transmitted until it burned up in the Earth's atmosphere on 4 January 1958.

More information:
http://www.daviddarling.info/encycloped ... utnik.html
https://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/

...and now the sixty-second anniversary. There are several useful sources on the internet. Some claim the U.S. never would have been as successful without the Sputnik launch. I don't know about that...

More information:
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecr ... =1957-001B
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for- ... ecord.html
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/sputnik
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/60-years-a ... o-sputnik/