#FirstInSpace

🚀🇷🇺 69 years ago, humanity’s space era began. On October 4, 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite, #Sputnik1, was launched from Scientific Research Test Range No. 5 (later renamed the #BaikonurCosmodrome) by the USSR Ministry of Defence.

🛰 The mission lasted 92 days until January 4, 1958, when the satellite deorbited and burned up in the Earth's atmosphere. Sputnik 1 travelled along an elliptical orbit with an apogee (the farthest point from Earth) of 954 km and a perigee (the closest point to Earth) of 288 km. It completed 1,440 orbits around the planet, covering roughly 60 million km.

✨ The launch of Sputnik 1 was covered by all the world’s leading media outlets – it was an event of truly global significance. One of the most enduring symbols of the mission was the spacecraft's distinct radio signal: the famous “beep-beep-beep” sound.

#RussianSpaceexploration