fifty years ago tonight, the world stepped outside to look for a new star in the sky, following the Russian launch of Sputnik-1, the world’s first artificial satellite. the simple sphere orbited the earth 1440 times, emitting the simple beeping noise you’re hearing now. since then, we’ve gone on to the moon, to Mars, to the moons of Saturn and even beyond the solar system – not bad for our first fifty years in space
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