Sputnik's legacy
Oct 1, 2007
The first artificial satellite was little more than a sphere of metal that let out the odd radio-frequency beep,
and its only purpose was to demonstrate the superiority of Soviet missile technology. But the launch of
Sputnik 1 half a century ago this month has made near-Earth space and the rest of the solar system
a much less mysterious place today than it might otherwise have been, explains Richard Corfield
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