The Sputnik 8K71PS rocket streaks across the sky over Montreal on its way to deliver Sputnik 1 into orbit. Scientists from the California Institute of Technology track Sputnik 1 from a mobile van.

Sixty-eight years ago today, on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite, into orbit. Once in space, Sputnik transmitted a continuous radio signal ...

The first artificial satellite put into orbit was Sputnik I. It was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, more than 10 years before the U.S. put a man on the moon. It was only about the size of a ...