55 years ago began the space era

On October 4, 1957, for the first time, an artificial satellite was launched - the two-stage satellite “Sputnik” (R-7, 8K71PS) launched an apparatus under the code name PS-1, which existed on it until January 4, 1958. Despite the experimental nature of the launch, the satellite provided scientists with a certain amount of interesting information about the upper layers of the atmosphere, allowing them to experimentally determine the density of these, as well as to obtain data on how radio waves pass through the Earth’s ionosphere.



But the main result was the practical confirmation of the fact that humanity is capable of launching its ships into space - and it was from this half-meter ball that the story of the conquest of near-Earth space began.