Friday, August 20, 2010

The Seminal Event of 1955


Photo: Chey's Sputnik-1 orbiting Earth as Venus rises at top right. Photo taken in Second Life on the Whimsy Kaboom sim at 3000 meters. Go there and see our great Earth orbit build.

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Written 20 August, 2010


The Seminal Event of 1955

It's 1955. The Soviet Union has the bomb, and the Cold War is raging. East and West are in an arms race, and nuclear war seems imminent.

Then something happened to upset the balance of power. A 23" metal spheriod, bristling with antennae, was launched into earth orbit from the USSR. All across the U.S., there was incomprehension. How could the Soviets have beat us into space?

I've featured my Sputnik-1 satellite in this blog before-- but when I took this photo this morning I couldn't resist posting it.

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