Scientific American - Sputnik Launched One-Sided Space Race ------------------------------------------ http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=71A2231A-E7 F2-99DF-3D394760732BB532&ref=rss
Sputnik was the brainchild of a group of Russian engineers, led by Chief Designer Sergei Korolev, who were tasked in 1954 with developing the nation's first intercontinental ballistic missile. The following year, Korolev was granted permission to pursue his real dream%u2014an artificial satellite capable of exploring the origin of cosmic rays and other scientific questions%u2014after the U.S. announced its intention to put a satellite into orbit as early as 1957 to mark the so-called International Geophysical Year.
On October 4, 1957, an R-7 ballistic missile blasted off from the plains of Kazakhstan carrying the 58-centimeter (23-inch), 83-kilogram (183-pound) aluminum orb, essentially a radio transmitter with four swept-back antennas.
The R-7 was the largest missile of its time and "much more powerful than anything the Americans had," Georgi Grechko, a Russian rocket engineer and former cosmonaut, told the Associated Press this week.
Americans%u2014even the most technologically savvy%u2014were stunned. "We didn't expect it that soon," says Henry Richter, a former JPL rocket engineer who worked on Explorer 1, the first successful U.S. satellite. "Nobody had ever launched a satellite before. We didn't know we could do it. Here it was su
