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1957 In Spaceflight
The first orbital flight of an artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched in October 1957, by the Soviet Union. In November, the second orbital flight took place. The Soviet Union launched the first animal to orbit the Earth, a dog, Laika Laika (russian: link=no, Лайка; – 3 November 1957) was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 space ..., who died in orbit a few hours after launch. * Thor, Atlas, and R-7 rocket families all have maiden flights this year, all three of which will have long legacies for the next 50+ years * Australia and the UK go to space with sounding rockets; first space launches from Australia * The R-12 makes its maiden flight * The US makes its first orbital attempt and fails (Vanguard TV-3) Launches January February March April May June ...
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Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 (; see § Etymology) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for three weeks before its three silver-zinc batteries ran out, and continued in orbit for three months until aerodynamic drag caused it to fall back into the atmosphere on 4 January 1958. It was a polished metal sphere in diameter with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. Its radio signal was easily detectable by amateur radio operators, and the 65° orbital inclination made its flight path cover virtually the entire inhabited Earth. The satellite's unanticipated success precipitated the American Sputnik crisis and triggered the Space Race, part of the Cold War. The launch was the beginning of a new era of political, military, technological and scientific developments. The word ''sputnik'' is Russian for ''satellite'' w ...
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Long Tom (rocket)
Long Tom was the first Australian sounding rocket. It was first launched from the Woomera Test Range The RAAF Woomera Range Complex (WRC) is a major Australian military and civil aerospace facility and operation located in South Australia, approximately north-west of Adelaide. The WRC is operated by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), a di ... in October 1957. It was a two-stage rocket developed to test the range's instrumentation for later projects. In the early 1960s it was superseded by the HAD and HAT sounding rockets. See also * Australian Space Research Institute References * Sounding rockets of Australia {{rocket-stub ...
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Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 3
Launch Complex 3 (LC-3) is a deactivated launch site southeast of SLC-36 on Cape Canaveral, Florida at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It was constructed, with launch complexes 1, 2, and 4, in the early 1950s for the Snark missile program. It was formerly used to launch Bumper, BOMARC, UGM-27 Polaris, and Lockheed X-17 missiles. The pad was also the site of the first launch from Cape Canaveral, a Bumper rocket on July 24, 1950. The site also served as a medical support facility during Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un .... References External links Encyclopedia Astronautica

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Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the station is the primary launch site for the Space Force's Eastern RangeCAST 1999, p. 1-12. with three launch pads currently active (Space Launch Complexes 37B, 40, and 41). The facility is south-southeast of NASA's Kennedy Space Center on adjacent Merritt Island, with the two linked by bridges and causeways. The Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Skid Strip provides a runway close to the launch complexes for military airlift aircraft delivering heavy and outsized payloads to the Cape. A number of American space exploration pioneers were launched from CCSFS, including the first U.S. Earth satellite (1958), first U.S. astronaut (1961), first U.S. astronaut in orbit (1962), first two-man U.S. spacecraft (1965), first U.S. unmanned lunar land ...
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Lockheed X-17
The Lockheed X-17 was a three-stage solid-fuel research rocket to test the effects of high mach atmospheric reentry. The first stage of the X-17 carried the rocket to a height of before burning out. The rocket would then coast on momentum to about before nosing down for reentry. The second stage engine would then fire before jettisoning and igniting the third and final stage. On April 24, 1957, an X-17 reached a speed of at Patrick AFB. Ultimately the X-17 would be traveling towards Earth at up to Mach 14.5. The X-17 was also used as the booster for the Operation Argus series of three high-altitude nuclear tests conducted in the South Atlantic in 1958. The rocket engine used by the rocket is called 1.5KS35000, a solid propellant rocket engine designed by Thiokol. It was used in at least 23 launches. Polaris FTV program The X-17 was used as a test vehicle to test technology for the development of the UGM-27 Polaris missile in 1957–1958. During this testing, the rocket wa ...
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Laika
Laika (russian: link=no, Лайка; – 3 November 1957) was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft, launched into low orbit on 3 November 1957. As the technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, Laika's survival was never expected. She died of overheating hours into the flight, on the craft's fourth orbit. Little was known about the impact of spaceflight on living creatures at the time of Laika's mission, and animal flights were viewed by engineers as a necessary precursor to human missions. The experiment, which monitored Laika's vital signs, aimed to prove that a living organism could survive being launched into orbit and continue to function under conditions of weakened gravity and increased radiation, providing scientists with some of the first data on the biological effects of spaceflight. Laika died within hours from ...
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Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surface is made up of the ocean, dwarfing Earth's polar ice, lakes, and rivers. The remaining 29% of Earth's surface is land, consisting of continents and islands. Earth's surface layer is formed of several slowly moving tectonic plates, which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Earth's liquid outer core generates the magnetic field that shapes the magnetosphere of the Earth, deflecting destructive solar winds. The atmosphere of the Earth consists mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere like carbon dioxide (CO2) trap a part of the energy from the Sun close to the surface. Water vapor is widely present in the atmosphere and forms clouds that cover most of the planet. More solar e ...
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Sputnik 2
Sputnik 2 (, russian: Спутник-2, ''Satellite 2''), or Prosteyshiy Sputnik 2 (PS-2, russian: Простейший Спутник 2, italic=yes, ''Simplest Satellite 2'') was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, on 3 November 1957, and the first to carry a living animal, a Soviet space dog named Laika. Laika died on the fourth orbit due to overheating caused by an air conditioning malfunction. Launched by the Soviet Union, Sputnik 2 was a cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of that weighed around , though it was not designed to separate from the rocket core that brought it to orbit, bringing the total mass in orbit to . It contained several compartments for radio transmitters, a telemetry system, a programming unit, a regeneration and temperature-control system for the cabin, and scientific instruments. A separate sealed cabin contained the dog Laika. Engineering and biological data were transmitted using the Tral D telemetry system, transmitting data to ...
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Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national republics; in practice, both its government and its economy were highly centralized until its final years. It was a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with the city of Moscow serving as its capital as well as that of its largest and most populous republic: the Russian SFSR. Other major cities included Leningrad (Russian SFSR), Kiev (Ukrainian SSR), Minsk ( Byelorussian SSR), Tashkent (Uzbek SSR), Alma-Ata (Kazakh SSR), and Novosibirsk (Russian SFSR). It was the largest country in the world, covering over and spanning eleven time zones. The country's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian Provisional Government ...
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Terrapin (rocket)
Deacon is the designation of an American sounding rocket. The Deacon was launched 90 times from 1947 to 1957 from Wallops Island, and it also was the rocket portion of the first rockoons, launched 1952 to 1956. The Deacon has a maximum flight height of 20 kilometers and a pay load ability of 17 kilograms. The takeoff thrust of the Deacon amounts to 27 kN, the takeoff weight 93 kg, the diameter 0.16 m and the length 3.28 m. Triple Deacon The Triple Deacon was a single stage member of the Deacon family that used three Deacon booster motors. Five launches from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) is a rocket launch site on Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, United States, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and approximately north-northeast of Norfolk. The facility is operated by the Goddard ... occurred in 1953 - 1954. See also * 1.9KS2150 References Deacon-Rocket {{Cajun rockets 1953 in spaceflight Sounding rockets of the United St ...
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Nike-Deacon
The Nike stage or Nike booster, a solid fuel rocket motor, was created by Hercules Aerospace for the Nike Ajax (M5) Nike Hercules (M5E1) (and M88 late in Hercules career). It was developed for use as the first stage of the Nike Ajax and Nike Hercules missiles as part of Project Nike. It was subsequently employed in a variety of missiles and multi-stage sounding rockets, becoming one of the most popular and reliable rocket stages, not only in the United States, but also in several other countries around the world.Corliss 1972 p. 24 Sounding rockets based on Nike Booster *The Nike Deacon has a ceiling of 189 km, a takeoff thrust of 217 kN, a takeoff weight of 710 kg, a diameter of 0.42 m and a length of 7.74 m. * The Nike Javelin was launched 34 times between 1964 and 1978. The maximum flight altitude of the Nike Javelin was 130 km, the takeoff thrust 217 kN, takeoff weight 900 kg, 0.42 m and length 8.20 m. * The Nike Malemute consists of ...
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Rockoon
A rockoon (from ''rocket'' and ''balloon'') is a solid fuel sounding rocket that, rather than being immediately lit while on the ground, is first carried into the upper atmosphere by a gas-filled balloon, then separated from the balloon and ignited. This allows the rocket to achieve a higher altitude, as the rocket does not have to move under power through the lower and thicker layers of the atmosphere. The original concept was developed by Cmdr. Lee Lewis, Cmdr. G. Halvorson, S. F. Singer, and James A. Van Allen during the Aerobee rocket firing cruise of the U.S.S. ''Norton Sound'' on March 1, 1949. A serious disadvantage is that unpiloted balloons cannot be steered, and consequently the location from which the rocket is launched can be uncertain. Therefore, a large area for the fall of the rocket is required for safety reasons. Early atmospheric research ''Time'' magazine reported in 1959: "Van Allen's 'Rockoons' could not be fired in Iowa for fear that the spent rockets ...
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