Its Russian name “satellite” has taken root in the world. It was a small metal ball with a diameter of 58 centimeters, which weighed only 83 kilograms and sent a beep-beep-beep signal from orbit. It became a symbol of incredible technological progress and a global breakthrough, because for the first time a person placed his device in space.
The satellite also marked a turning point in the Cold War. The Americans were seized by mortal fear and hysteria: the Soviet Union is the first in space! The rivalry between the two powers has entered the space age. The satellite went into space from the super-secret Tyura-Tam test site, which is located on the territory of modern Kazakhstan. Later this cosmodrome was named after the name of the nearest village - "Baikonur". Launching the satellite was a priority for Nikita Khrushchev, who was then at the head of the Soviet state. He wanted to wipe his nose to the Americans and demonstrate Soviet technological superiority.
However, the launch almost fell through, so the success was not officially reported until the radio stations on Earth received the signal broadcast by the satellite. Not everything went smoothly. Later, from the stories of engineers, it became known that only seconds separated the project from failure. It turned out that one of the engines of the launch vehicle had malfunctions: at 16 seconds of flight, there was a failure in the tank emptying system. The fuel supply was cut off and the main engine stopped running literally one second earlier than the planned speed was reached. If the rocket had not accelerated, it would not have been able to enter orbit and launch a satellite there. However, one second did not stop it, everything worked out.
The first Soviet satellite flew aboard the R-7 rocket, which was created not to conquer space, but for other purposes. It was the first Soviet ballistic intercontinental missile, which was developed in the design bureau of Sergei Korolev. She could deliver a nuclear warhead to a distance of 8 thousand kilometers, and the flight range of its later modifications was 11 thousand kilometers. This, in any case, was enough to strike at the United States from the territory of the USSR. Earlier, Moscow had R-5 missiles with a range of 6 thousand kilometers. Previous models of Soviet missiles were copies and modifications of the German V-1 and V-2 (by occupying eastern Germany in 1945, the Russians were able to obtain blueprints for the Third Reich missiles).
The USSR was engaged in the development of rockets and hatched plans to conquer space, starting in the 1930s. The pioneer of Soviet cosmonautics was Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, an outstanding scientist of Polish origin. The German documents undoubtedly helped accelerate the development of the missile program. And she was on the list of absolute priorities. Sergei Korolev, as well as other scientists and engineers, even worked in the camps where they ended up during the Stalinist purges.
In the 1950s, they decided to force the rocket and space program. Moscow knew that they also wanted to show their technological superiority overseas and send something into space. At the end of August 1957, the first successful tests of the R-7 took place. A rocket launched from Baikonur reached Kamchatka. Moscow acquired weapons capable of striking the United States. It remained only to demonstrate it with pomp. The little satellite was perfect for this task. He showed the whole world that Nikita Khrushchev has space capabilities: he is able to send equipment into space and anywhere on earth. Of course, Soviet propaganda emphasized that this was a huge step for humanity and a breakthrough in science, and the entire operation was exclusively peaceful in nature. The truth, however, was different.
Most of all, Khrushchev was pleased with the R-7 rocket (in NATO it received the designation SS-6 Sapwood), because he acquired an argument in confrontation with the Americans. They actually went through the shock. After October 4, 1957, mass hysteria gripped the United States. People began to build bunkers and set up training atomic alarms. The newspapers wrote that the Soviet Union could drop a bomb from space. Of course, there was still a long way to go before real Star Wars, but the rivalry in outer space was already unfolding. The Americans launched their own satellite into orbit only in February 1958. He did not manage to meet with the Soviet: he burned up in the dense layers of the atmosphere on January 4, 1958, after serving in space for three months. He fulfilled his task: he seriously scared the Americans. Today, Russians continue to celebrate the anniversary of the launch as the day they defeated America.
Nowadays, they can no longer boast of such successes in space as in the era when the entire economy was working to create one rocket. Today, mostly commercial launches are carried out at the Baikonur cosmodrome, and everyone can launch their own satellite (much more advanced in technical terms than the very first one). For example, in the near future, an Angola-owned vehicle will be sent into orbit on board a Ukrainian rocket. The African satellite looks like a technological miracle against the backdrop of an unremarkable metal ball of the late 1950s. But it was the one who became its progenitor 60 years ago.
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Michał Kacewicz