Sputnik 1 (/ˈspʌtnɪk, ˈspʊtnɪk/, ‹See Tfd›Russian: Спутник-1, Satellite 1) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for three weeks before its three silver-zinc batteries became depleted. Aerodynamic drag caused it to fall back into the atmosphere on 4 January 1958. The world’s first observation was made at the school observatory in Rodewisch (Saxony).
It was a polished metal sphere 58 cm (23 in) in diameter with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. Its radio signal was easily detectable by amateur radio operators, and the 65° orbital inclination made its flight path cover virtually the entire inhabited Earth.
The satellite’s success was unanticipated by the United States. This precipitated the American Sputnik crisis and triggered the Space Race, part of the Cold War. The launch was the beginning of a new era of political, military, technological, and scientific developments. The word sputnik is Russian for satellite when interpreted in an astronomical context; its other meanings are spouse or traveling companion.
Tracking and studying Sputnik 1 from Earth provided scientists with valuable information. The density of the upper atmosphere could be deduced from its drag on the orbit, and the propagation of its radio signals gave data about the ionosphere.
Sputnik 1 was launched during the International Geophysical Year from Site No.1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR (now known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome). The satellite traveled at a peak speed of about 8 km/s (18,000 mph), taking 96.20 minutes to complete each orbit. It transmitted on 20.005 and 40.002 MHz, which were monitored by radio operators throughout the world. The signals continued for 22 days until the transmitter batteries depleted on 26 October 1957. On 4 January 1958, after three months in orbit, Sputnik 1 burned up while reentering Earth’s atmosphere, having completed 1,440 orbits of the Earth, and travelling a distance of approximately 70,000,000 km (43,000,000 mi).
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I didn’t enjoy most of my time in church but I have to give credit to the pastor who stood beside his trans son even though he lost a large part of the already small congregation in doing so
Dumping some personal mental health thoughts, CW: depression
spoiler
I’m feeling mentally unwell all of the sudden.
My last depression was the worst of my life and when it started getting better I constantly worried about slipping back into it. Anything that reminded me of that time made me feel like I was being dragged back to the depths of hell, but over time I felt it less. I just stuck to my routines and tried not to jinx my good fortune. I felt like those baseball players who won’t change their socks because they’re on a hot streak. It’s been a couple years since then.
The last week I’ve been having random anxiety not seemingly connected to anything going on in my life, just being amped up. I’ve also been easily angered and feeling more awkward in my social interactions than normal. Today I woke up very tired even though I slept 8 hours. I’m feeling a lot of the physical symptoms I get when I’m depressed.
I’m just going to keep doing the stuff that got me out of the last depression and not worry too much about it.
It did seem to help to type this out, so I’m going to hit “post”, but no response is necessary.
I got blackout drunk last night at a house party and made an utter fool of myself. I’m actually mortified I feel like I need to fake my death and move to a different city and make a new identity
i read the guardian article comparing palestinian children being murdered by the idf to blood libel and i think this is the most disgusting guardian article I’ve ever read.
when you think they can’t sink any lower, jesus fucking christ
Dino Soviet Split
I just realized my label printer intentionally wastes tape. The print head is farther from the exit than it needs to be, so the beginning and end of every label has to have several centimeters of blank space.
“You mentioned the Estonian prime minister. What’s so striking here is I spent quite a bit of time in the Baltics and they really were traumatized by the Russian occupation, just as the East Germans were as a trauma. The surprising thing is that Norway wasn’t occupied. Stoltenberg was this way not because of any personal suffering at the hands of the Russian.”
Oh no not ‘trauma’. bull fucking shit
feel like this right now…Ok but could they actually make a robot pope?
you can open a few cans and dump them in a pot for a few minutest and then eat it. did anyone else know this?
culinary arts students be like: oh damn i got a plate of spaghetti due tomorrow
winnable game
“let’s ff unwinnable”
“our opponents are the same rank as us (which is not good), we should play it out more good chance they throw”
“no way you’re delusional we need to ff”
stops trying so it’s a 4v5
game starts going really bad
“
see i told you it would go bad”I hate league of legends players with my entire soul
There’s an 18 page mini fluid dynamics textbook pdf for pipes in Satisfactory that somebody made, complete with example problems and math.
Amazing
Reading back through a lot of the dumb silly shit folks used to do - Discordianism, Church of Subgenius, culture-hacking and culture jamming, and like, we fucking lost, huh? Game gate and now it’s, idk, culture-extorting social media hate mob offspring from hell are doing evil culture jamming effectively and reliably when all AdBusters ever managed was selling a slick 25$ per magazine. People are all caught up in weird cults but they’re banal, evil, mass market cults of politics and money. The counterculture of the 20th still exists but it’s been completely 100% subverted, chewed up, and spit out as self help culture and and commercialized snake oil.
Is whimsy, satire, and contrarian bullshit even possible in the present day social, media, and political atmosphere? I Can’t even see dumb shit like Flying Spaghetti Monster taking off in the aftermath of New Atheism and the stratification of US society under two competing cults of fascism with a big chunk of the population stuck between them, totally depoliticized and without much in the way of real beliefs.
