In October 1957, a beach-ball sized metal globe hurtled through space a couple hundred miles above the United States. That orb was the first artificial Earth satellite — Sputnik. Sergei Khrushchev, former missile engineer and son of Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, remembers the US-Soviet race into space.
Get Your Kicks on Sputnik
There was instant global awe for the Soviet satellite, just under 2 feet in diameter, which circled the earth every 96 minutes. It was the beginning of the space age, but it wasn’t just a technological marvel: it had a lasting impact on American culture, language, and design. Richard Paul looks into why Sputnik has never really left our orbit.