"When the first Sputnik was launched, I was 12 years old and was living in Israel. There was no TV in Israel in 1957, and hence all the information came via radio and newspapers. Interestingly enough, there wasn't even a word in Hebrew for 'satellite' at the time, so all the reports used either 'artificial moon' or simply the word 'Sputnik' as a noun. In fact, the launch prompted the Israeli Academy for the Hebrew Language to invent a word for 'satellite.'
"I remember that the two facts that impressed me the most were the speed at which Sputnik was moving, about 29,000 kilometers per hour (18,000 miles per hour), and its weight, about 84 kilograms (185 pounds), which was considered extremely high. The name 'artificial moon' gave Sputnik an additional romantic appeal, since it implied that humans were able for the first time to literally affect the heavens. The excitement skyrocketed when a month following Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2 was launched, with the dog Laika on board. I definitely do remember though that the inhumane treatment of the dog did raise some objections."
--Mario Livio, senior astrophysicist, Space Telescope Science Institute, via Google News
Photo by NASA
