🗓 On October 4, 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite was launched in the USSR.

The satellite was launched by the R-7 carrier rocket from the test site, the future Baikonur cosmodrome.

The spacecraft PS - 1 was a ball with a diameter of 58 cm, weighed 83.6 kg and was equipped with four pin antennas.

295 seconds after the launch of PS - 1 and the central block of the rocket weighing 7.5 tons were launched into an elliptical orbit. At 315 seconds after the launch, the satellite separated from the second stage of the carrier rocket, and immediately the whole world heard its call signs. The satellite flew for 92 days, entering the atmosphere and burned up on January 4, 1958, having completed 1440 revolutions around the Earth (about 60 million kilometers), and its radio transmitters worked for two weeks after launch.

The United States was able to repeat the success of the USSR only on February 1, 1958, by launching the Explorer-1 satellite on the second attempt.