The very first satellite ever sent into space was Sputnik 1. It was sent up into space on October 4, 1957 by the Soviet Union. It was created by Sergei Korolev. He was an scientist and engineer in Russia. It was launched to study temperatures in space and it sent radio signals back to Earth. Even though Sputnik was not very big, only 23 inches in diameter (about the size of a basketball) and only weighed 184 pounds, it could easily be seen orbiting Earth without a telescope. Sputnik 1 orbited the Earth every 90 minutes and sent radio messages for 21  days. These messages could be heard on the radio worldwide.

The United States felt that this could be a threat to security. A space race began then. This was called the Cold War. 
The U.S. created NASA in 1958 and decided to try to be the first to send man into space. It was 121 days after Sputnik 1 was launched that the U. S. launched their own satellite called Explorer 1. 

Sputnik 2 followed in November 1957. On board was the first living passenger to be sent into space. It was a dog, named Laika. She had food, water, and fresh air. She lived in space seven days while orbiting Earth in Sputnik 2. Unfortunately Sputnik 2 lost power after the first week and so Laika died. However, her trip into space proved that it was possible for humans to travel in space.

There was also a Sputnik 3 and it was launched in 1958. 

After that were several other Sputniks. Each of these had different and other dogs. Sputnik 5, for instance, had two dogs and both of them lived to return to Earth. 

My resources:

Books:

"Extraordinary Solar System" by Stuart Atkinson. Published by Scholastic, Inc., 2001

"The Planets" by Patric Moore. Published by Cooper Beach Books, 1995

"SpaceCraft - Mighty Machines" by Adam Hibbert. 
copyright 2001, Paragon Publishing, UK

Software:

Image at top: 
Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia Deluxe 
copyright 1998, Microsoft Corporation.

Websites:

 NASA history:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov

The Nine Planets for Kids: http://kids.nineplanets.org/index.html
(maintained by Bill Arnett, Copyright Angela Finer)

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