MOSCOW — Russia on Thursday celebrated the 50th anniversary of the launch of the world’s first satellite, Sputnik, which marked the dawn of the Space Age and sparked the race to land a man on the moon.
Ceremonies were held at the Russia’s cosmonaut training center, Star City, outside of Moscow, to recall the events leading up to the Oct. 4, 1957, launch of the 184-pound metal ball with the spiked antennas that beeped as it circled the Earth for 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 wall.
Engineers were to gather at the Academy of Sciences later in the day for more commemorations.
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 United States to pour money into space research and technology with the goal of landing a man on the moon _ an event that occurred in 1969.
“Of course speaking just for us specialists (the launch) sparked an unexpected furor around the world. No one expected this, even including our engineers,” said Viktor Frusmon, a co-worker of Korolyov’s, in a televised comments Thursday.
We’ve come along way from that beep-beep-beep heard around the world. We’ve been to the moon. We’ve sent unmanned probes throughout the Solar System and beyond. But there are still many places to go.
