Operation Paperclip
Khrushchev’s son recalls Sputnik, Gagarin ascent in US-Soviet space race
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.