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Russia celebrates Sputnik’s 50th anniversary

BY RIA Novosti

Moscow : Russia Thursday marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of the world’s first-ever satellite, Sputnik 1, an event which changed the world forever.

The world entered the space age on Oct 4, 1957, when the USSR won the race to put the first satellite into orbit. Sputnik 1 was launched aboard a Soviet R-7 rocket from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan.

The satellite circled the globe for three months, travelling around 60 million km, and sending back signals to earth for 22 days until its transmitter’s batteries gave up. The satellite burned up upon re-entering the atmosphere on Jan 4, 1958.

The launch sent shockwaves around the world, leading to a space race between the US and the then USSR. Sputnik’s launch was followed by Yuri Gagarin’s first manned space flight in 1961 and Neil Armstrong’s journey to the moon eight years later.