Sputnik
A metal sphere beeping overhead starts the space age and a panic.
- When
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
The Soviet Union launches the first artificial satellite on 4 October 1957. It carried only a radio transmitter, but anyone with a shortwave set could hear it and the implication was clear: a rocket that can put a satellite in orbit can deliver a warhead anywhere. The United States responds by founding NASA and ARPA and overhauling science education — ARPA later builds the network that becomes the internet.