Sputnik Turns 50

"We regarded it as Korolyov's little toy," says Boris Chertok, 95, a key designer of Sputnik, earth's first artificial satellite. "We... did not expect the impact the launch of this small ball, simple from outside and inside, made for mankind."

The impact was and is huge: funneling enormous amounts of cash and energy into science, spawning numerous inventions and inspiring many a career and countless works of literature, art and entertainment, and ultimately changing the geopolitical climate, to the point where today, Russians, Americans, and astronauts from other nations work side by side at the International Space Station.

Engineers, military officials and former cosmonauts on Thursday celebrated the 50th anniversary of the launch of the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik, which marked the dawn of the Space Age and sparked the race to land a man on the moon.

The space race had a very serious military objective, for both sides, with strategists concerned about who would rule the skies - and beyond.

"However unpleasant it might sound," recalls Chertok, "the Cold War period stimulated the development of space and satellite technology. If we had had lived as peacefully as today or, our life had been as stable as it is today, without any fear that someone might attack, then we would not have put so much money into space technology development, in the way we did in the later half of the twentieth century."

Ceremonies were held Thursday at the Russia's cosmonaut training center, Star City, outside of Moscow and engineers were to gather at the Academy of Sciences to recall the events leading up to the Oct. 4, 1957, launch of the spikey, 184 pound metal ball that beeped as it circled the globe for some 22 days.

Military officials held a small ceremony to lay flowers at the grave of the father of the Soviet space program, Sergei Korolyov, who was buried with honors at the foot of the Kremlin walls.

Russia's senior counselor for science and technology is marking the anniversary at the University of Dayton in Ohio, where he is speaking at a space conference. Yevgeny Zvedre will also tour the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum, and watch a recreation of the Wright brothers first powered, controlled flight.

The success of Soviet engineers in launching Sputnik stunned the world, and was followed just four years later by another historic achievement - the launch of Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space.

Sputnik galvanized the U.S. government to pour money into space research and technology with the goal of landing a man on the moon - an event that occurred nearly 12 years later.

"Of course speaking just for us specialists (the launch) sparked an unexpected furor around the world. No one expected this, even including our engineers," Viktor Frusmon, a co-worker of Korolyov's, said in a televised comments Thursday.