In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1. It was the first satellite in Earth's orbit. Or was it? For over a hundred ...

On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union stunned the world with its surprise launch of Sputnik 1. See how the historic satellite launch worked in this SPACE.com infographic.

The Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 satellite took to the skies on Oct. 4, 1957, launching the space age and the Cold War space race. Here are a few fun facts you may not know about Sputnik 1 and its ...

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik , the world's first artificial satellite , forever altering the course of history and marking the beginning of the Space Age . The dream of ...

On this day in 1957, humans sent their first satellite into space. Sputnik 1, named after the Russian word for “satellite,” was launched by the Soviet Union. It weighed 184 pounds and traveled ...

There may actually have been three Sputnik moments. The Soviet Union's Oct. 4, 1957, launch of the first-ever artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, created quite a stir, to be sure. It did kick off the ...

Since the Soviets launched the first satellite in 1957, humans have put tens of thousands of objects in Earth’s orbit. Each dot represents one of 9,000 satellites orbiting the Earth.

In 1957, the Space Age began with the launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. Since then, the number of objects humans have hurled toward the stars has soared to the thousands. As those ...

On this day in 1970, Japan became the world’s fourth space power, after the Soviet Union in 1957, the United States in 1958 and France in 1965, by successfully launching a satellite into orbit ...