Russia marks 50th anniversary of Sputnik launch

Russia on thursday marked the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Sputnik, the world's first satellite that started the space age placing the former Soviet Union ahead of the United States.

Former cosmonauts, engineers and space officials participated in ceremonies devoted to one of the most significant moments in space history.

Veterans of the Soviet space programme gathered at the Russian Cosmonaut Training Centre, Star City, outside Moscow to witness the unveiling of a monument to commemorate the launch of Sputnik in 1957.

Military officials also held a ceremony near the Kremlin wall to lay flowers at the grave of Sergei Korolyov, who supervised the Sputnik Project.

The launch of Sputnik was a propaganda coup for the then-Soviet leadership under Nikita Khrushchev during the Cold War and began the intense rivalry in space race between Moscow and Washington.

On October 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 was launched aboard a Soviet R-7 rocket from what is now the Baikonur Space Centre in the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan. The satellite circled the globe for three months, covering around 60 million km and sending back signals to earth for 22 days. The satellite burned up on re-entering the atmosphere on January 4, 1958.

The resulting investment in space programmes by the US and the USSR led to the space race and, subsequently, Yuri Gagarin's first manned space flight in 1961, followed by Neil Armstrong's journey into immortality eight years later.

Fifty years after Sputnik's launch, more than 800 satellites used for communications, surveillance and navigation now orbit the earth. "The launch of Sputnik was at least as significant for mankind as the discovery of America by Columbus," said Yuri Karash, an expert on the Russian space programme. "By launching Sputnik, people started expanding their habitat beyond earth," he added.

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