Americans certainly remember Sputnik. At a time when the world was larger and scarier, the Soviets had a metal basketball flying over the United States and the rest of the world. It made people ner… ...

The Soviets called it sputnik, meaning simply “satellite” or “fellow traveler.” But to American space-watchers of 60 years ago, the satellite that launched on Oct. 4, 1957 had many ...

The Space Age officially began when the USSR launched Sputnik on October 4, 1957. But how did this satellite work, and what did it actually do?