Question by Chef Dane: Why is Sputnik considered a major turning point in history?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Astro
Sputnik was an important milestone in human history because satellites have become an influential part of daily life.
They are used around the world for broadcasting and communications, weather forecasting, navigation, observing land, sea and air, scientific research, military reconnaissance and numerous other purposes. In addition, hundreds of men and women have lived and worked aboard space shuttles and space stations, which are manned satellites in Earth orbit.
The launch of Sputnik led to new political, military, technological and scientific developments. Even though the launch was only one event, it marked the start of what came to be known as the Space Age and blasted off the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race.
We refer to a spacefaring nation as a country with a rocket powerful enough for space launches. Spacefaring nations are those which launch their own satellites to orbit.
The majority of satellites have been built by Russia and the United States, but the countries of Western Europe in the European Space Agency, as well as Japan, China, India, Canada, Israel, Brazil and others have been actively engaged in satellite development.
In chronological order, the first countries to loft their artificial moons to orbit above Earth were:
USSR
USA
France
Japan
China
Great Britain
Europe
India
Israel
Iraq
Read all the answers in the comments.
Add your own answer!
Eddyking4 says
because it was the first artificial satelite ever
Adorabilly says
By putting Sputnik into orbit, humans have now got the potential and ability to put things into outerspace.
This includes satelights as has been mentioned which is immense because of the ability for communication, image mapping, weather production etc…
But there are more things that are directly related to the space program
1. medical technology has exploded due to space technology
2. the ability to attack people on the other side of the planet with missles nuclear weapons and the ability of the military to respond which led directly to such things as the internet.
3. the ability to travel (soon) hypersonically (ie take off from new york, and land in tokyo in one hour.)
4. The ability to expand and colonize the moon and mars.
5. It also proved the earth was not flat, and expanded human understanding of the universe.
braxton_paul says
Sputnik was the very first man-made object (..satellite..) to be placed into orbit around Earth.
spmdrumbass says
It was the very first satellite put into orbit by humans. I'd consider that a milestone, wouldn't you?