A Golden Jubilee is on it's way for the Sputnik 1
Here's some links with more informations
http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/
http://www.benandjenniferlevasseur.com/ ... hHome.html
http://www.batnet.com/~mfwright/sputnik.html (Old site, but contains some good writings)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[quote]
Sputnik 1
"???????‚??????-1"
Organization: Council of Ministers of the USSR
Major contractors: OKB-1, Soviet Ministry of Radiotechnical Industry
Mission type: Atmospheric studies
Satellite of: Earth
Launch date: October 4, 1957, 19:28:34 UTC (22:28:34 MSK)
Launch vehicle: R-7
Decay: January 4, 1958
Mission duration: 3 months
NSSDC ID: 1957-001B
Webpage: NASA NSSDC Master Catalog
Mass: 83.6 kg (184.3 lbs.)
Semimajor axis: 6,955.2 km (4,321.8 miles)
Eccentricity: .05201
Inclination: 65.1?°
Orbital period: 96.2 minutes
Apoapsis: 939 km (583 miles)
Periapsis: 215 km (134 miles)
Orbits: 1,440
Sputnik 1 (Russian: "???????‚??????-1", "Satellite-1", or literally "Co-traveler-1" byname ????-1 (PS-1, i.e. "???€???
