4.10.07

50 Years of Orbits


Orbiting a planet is about falling so that you miss the ground. It's strange when you think about it, and not all that surprising that we haven't been doing it ourselves for long - though the big ball of rock we live on has certainly been in an orbit of its own for billions of years.

Anyway, Sputnik, the first human-made object to orbit the Earth, was launched on this day, exactly 50 years ago. Celebrate by messing around with Orbiter, why don't you.

2 comments:

Geosomin said...

When I was a kid I was obsessed with sputnik for a while. It just looked so Flash Gordon and shiny. I had a cutout in my ceiling of glow in the dark starts and moved it around occasionally.

Pacian said...

I liked the lunar lander best, myself.