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Rediff.com  » News » Russia marks Sputnik's 50th anniversary

Russia marks Sputnik's 50th anniversary

Source: PTI
October 04, 2007 16:59 IST
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Russia on Thursday marked the golden jubilee of the launch of the first artificial satellite Sputnik, which sparked off a space race between the then Communist state and the US 50 years ago.

Giant screens were put up in Moscow to broadcast scenes from the historic launch, the Russian space agency Roskosmos said.

Flowers were laid near the Kremlin Wall at the grave of Sergei Korolyov, the brain behind the project.

The former Soviet Union launched the first-ever artificial satellite Sputnik at the height of Cold War in 1957, leaving behind its rival United States.

The satellite was launched aboard a Soviet R-7 rocket from what is now the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan.

The satellite with regular 'beep-beep' radio signals for 22 days till its transmitter battery ran down orbited the Earth for 3 months, travelling around 60 million km before burning in atmosphere on re-entering on January 4, 1958.

The Sputnik launch coincided with the 102nd anniversary of the Wright brothers' first powered, controlled flight.

Soviet citizen Yuri Gagarin was the first man to fly into space in 1961, followed by US astronaut Neil Armstrong eight years later.

Due to the heavy investments by the ex-Soviet Union in its defence and civilian space programme, Russia even today remains one of the two nuclear and space superpowers and has resumed work on long-term projects for setting base on the Moon and flights to Mars.

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