Science: The Sputnik

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Launching of the Russian satellite is man's first successful attempt to navigate the ocean of space around the earth. Despite the chagrin of U.S. rocketmen, few disparaged the Russian achievement. In at least three important ways—weight, orbit and altitude—the sputnik* outclasses the U.S. satellite, which is still on the ground.

Biggest surprise was the sputnik's weight: 184.3 lbs. The U.S. Project Vanguard has hoped to send 21½ lbs. into space, less than one-eighth of the sputnik. Some critics cited the weight of the Russian satellite as proof that it is crude; but in satellite launching, the weight placed on the orbit is a measure of success.

Red Triumph. In choosing an orbit for the sputnik, the Russians were daring. The easiest way to put a satellite on an orbit is to launch it toward the east from the equator. This takes maximum advantage of the earth's easterly rotation, and gives the satellite about 1,000 m.p.h. of free speed. The U.S. satellite, launched due east from Florida, would have got about 914 m.p.h. of free speed. The sputnik's orbit, 65° away from the equator, takes it —in Red triumph—over nearly all of the inhabited earth. (The U.S. satellite would have stayed south of most of Europe and nearly all of the Soviet Union.)

The sputnik's orbit is also much higher than Project Vanguard hoped to achieve. The U.S. satellite was expected to revolve at a minimum of 300 miles above the earth. This altitude would have touched the fringe of the atmosphere, probably limiting the satellite's life to a few days. The sputnik revolves some 559 miles up, an altitude at which it could keep circling around for years.

When the sputnik crossed the sky, it took U.S. satellite watchers by surprise. The Smithsonian Institution's Astrophysical Observatory at Cambridge, Mass., designed to correlate visual observations, was still unfinished. In spite of frantic efforts to make sense of reports flowing in from all over the country, its experts could not determine the sputnik's orbit until figures came from the Moscow radio.

The launching was timed in such a way that the satellite passes over the U.S. either in broad daylight or at night. In daytime the 23-in. sphere, more than 500 miles away, is invisible against the glare of the sun. At night it is invisible because it is in the shadow of the earth. Only at dawn or dusk, when the satellite is in sunlight against a background of fairly dark sky, can it be seen.

Twilight Sight. The Russians made their sputnik more conveniently visible in their own territory than in the U.S. during its first trips around the earth, but U.S. observers will get their chance eventually. Dr. Joseph A. Hynek, director of the observatory's satellite-tracking program, calculates that the satellite's orbit shifts around the earth at 4° per day. This will bring it over the U.S. at twilight on about Oct. 20, when it should be visible through small telescopes or binoculars.