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elleng

(140,999 posts)
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 12:34 AM Saturday

68 years ago today SPUTNIK

launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, which started the Space Race.

(ALSO date my family and I left for our first trip to Europe, beginning lives of great adventures!!!)

6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Hekate

(99,723 posts)
1. What a thing that was. I was 9 when it happened, and later that year we moved to O'ahu...
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 01:02 AM
Saturday

…Territory of Hawai’i. I followed the space program forever, it seemed — I wanted to go out there.

I really believed we’d be much further along than just filling the night sky with satellites and space junk.

🪐🪐🪐🪐🪐

Rhiannon12866

(244,353 posts)
4. I saw Sputnik and many other Soviet space replicas when I visited Moscow in the mid '80s
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 03:06 AM
Saturday

On display at The Exposition for Economic Achievement. I was there with my grandmother and the peace group she joined for their first visit to their "sister town." When the exhibition guide started talking about the cosmonauts having to be carried off their first spaceships because their muscles had atrophied, I felt woozy and went outside for some air and she followed me like she couldn't understand what was wrong with me. The replica that bothered me the most was of Laika, the first dog in space - because they didn't yet have the technology to bring her back.

NBachers

(18,935 posts)
5. Our local newspaper told us when & where to go out at night to see Sputnik- and, sure enough, there it was!
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 03:07 AM
Saturday

electric_blue68

(24,147 posts)
6. A bit too young at 4 yrs old. Probably heard about it just a few years later.
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 03:31 AM
Saturday

I followed our space program at some point in the Mercury series. The TV on the ?7 ft high TV stand in grade achool!😄

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