50 years ago today sputnik cut a new pathway
Fifty years ago today, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, the Sputnik, which in turn started the space race that led to cool things like the computer you're reading this on. It also helped usher in the arms race between the United States and the USSR, since Sputnik's rocket could also deliver nuclear bombs. Here's some interesting bits and pieces I've come across researching Sputnik:

Sputnik program

The Sputnik program was a series of unmanned space missions launched by the Soviet Union in late 1957 to demonstrate the viability of artificial satellites for exploring the upper atmosphere as part of the International Geophysical Year. It included Sputnik 1, the first man-made object to orbit earth.

The Russian name "Спутник" means literally "co-traveler", "traveling companion" or "satellite", and its R-7 launch vehicle was designed initially to carry nuclear warheads.

The space race was on:

Sputnik and The Dawn of the Space Age

The Sputnik launch also led directly to the creation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In July 1958, Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act (commonly called the "Space Act"), which created NASA as of October 1, 1958 from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and other government agencies.

A popular slang word was born during this era:

Beatific etymology

The word "beatnik" was coined by Herb Caen in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 2, 1958. Caen coined the term by adding the Russian suffix -nik after Sputnik I to the Beat Generation. Caen's column with the word came six months after the launch of Sputnik. It may have been Caen's intent to portray the members of the Beat Generation as un-American. Objecting to Caen's twist on the term, Allen Ginsberg wrote to the New York Times to deplore "the foul word beatnik," commenting, "If beatniks and not illuminated Beat poets overrun this country, they will have been created not by Kerouac but by industries of mass communication which continue to brainwash man."

Here's some great shorts from the website, The Fever Of '57:



YouTube: Launch of Sputnik, October 4, 1957



YouTube: Sputnik beeps overhead, Americans in awe, including a young John Glenn



YouTube: In the war of words, America fell behind

Music to celebrate the begining of the Space Age:

Roosevelt Sykes: Sputnik Baby - 3.84MB

Carl Mann: Satellite No. 2. - 3.62MB

Jerry Engler: Sputnik (Satellite Girl) - 4.25MB

Roky Erickson & The Aliens: Sputnik - 7.44MB

Lou Reed: Satellite Of Love - 5.06MB