If I were to ask you what is the oldest man-made orbiting satellite still in use, I’d expect to hear a variety of answers. Space geeks might mention the passive radar calibration spheres ...

Each cube-shaped spacecraft is less than 1.5 m across. The shadow-casting satellite holds a disk to block the sun from the telescope on the other satellite. This disk will mimic the Moon in a ...

NASA October 4: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1 into earth orbit. The first man-made satellite passes overhead, making one revolution every 90 minutes. October 5: The Soviet daily newspaper ...

On October 4, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik. Americans feared the implications of the first man-made satellite orbiting above the Earth. Astronaut Frank Borman recalled, "I was teaching at ...

Challenges: In 1957, the Soviet Sputnik—the world’s first man-made satellite—launched the space race in which the U.S. attempted to catch up with the U.S.S.R. Major Acts: Dwight D. Eisenhower created ...

The first time the world learned the meaning of the Russian word Sputnik was in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite into orbit. At the height of the Cold War this ...

Despite orbiting almost 400km higher than the highest passenger plane, it is possible to spot our most famous man-made satellite on a clear evening, even without binoculars or a telescope!