Sunday, September 30, 2007
50 years ago, Sputnik changed the world
50 years ago, Sputnik changed the worldLook at its launch video here.
Actually, as described by the former scientists, the world's first orbiter was born out of a very different Soviet program: the frantic development of a rocket capable of striking the United States with a hydrogen bomb.
Using mobile towers, Sprint this year signaled satellites to provide cell phone service to emergency workers after a tornado in Greensburg, Kan., ripped that area’s communications infrastructure to pieces.
All told, the U.S. Air Force counts some 6,000 satellites launched into space, at the behest of more than four dozen countries, since Sputnik. About 3,200 of those satellites continue to orbit — including two that deliver XM Satellite Radio.
Their names?
“Rock” and “Roll.”
5,958 Total man-made satellites — from puppy-toting capsules to the things that beam driving directions to your dashboard — that orbited the planet
9,341 Pieces of space junk loitering above the atmosphere
1 in 3 Chances that a satellite or scrap of space junk is American-made
352 Lead in orbiting satellites the former Soviet Union has over the United States
Spawn of Sputnik
3,204
Number of satellites circling Earth today
2,754
Number of objects launched into the sky that have fallen back to Earth — including Skylab, the space shuttles and thousands of satellites you never knew were aloft.
A lot of bad hardware floating around, isn't it?
