Happy Birthday, Sputnik! - Neatorama

Today it's exactly 50 years since the Soviet Union launched their Sputnik 1 - the world's first artificial satellite to be put into geocentric orbit.

Link [Wikipedia] - via Prylfeber

Oh man! I had a big long post about how Sputnik didn't go into geocentric orbit. Then I realized what I thought geocentric referred to was actually geosynchronous. So to prevent someone else from looking like a moron, I'm posting this and providing this helpful link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocentric_orbit

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Thanks for the link Kurt!

I noticed now that Google has a Sputnik logo for this special day.

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Sputnik is that old? wow.

Hmm i suddenly crave potato.

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How come soviet space names are so much cooler than the americans? "Sputnik" sounds cool even today, while "Explorer 1" sounds like a Ford from 1996

Other cool soviet space names: Luna, Venera, Zond, Proton. Now those are proper spaceships. :-)

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I totally agree with you Lasse. :)

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