The Sputnik wll not be back and neither will Lajka!

Today we - or the Russians - celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the first space aircraft launched into space - Sputnik 1.

This marked the start of a race in space and for the Americans it was a great defeat to see the Sovjet Union being ahead of them. 
It was not only a defeat but the American government thought that this could become a military threat against the country.

President Eisenhower at the time declared that the United States also could have launched their own Sputnik if they had lowered the scientific demands of the operation. This was of course nonsense. He lied to the whole nation.

The Sputnik showed that the Sovjet Union now could strike the United States with long distance missiles and USA was actually far behind. 

A month later Sputnik 2 was launched with one passenger, namely the dog Lajka. Poor dog!

Sputnik 3 on the other hand became a failure as the tape recorder that was supposed to record the event did not work. 
This could have been avoided if not the premier of the Sovjet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, had refused to postpone the launch. The reason he did not postpone was because he had promised the Italian communist leaders something special in connection to the election the day after.

Since these early days 4 500 satellites have been launched - half of which have been military spy satellites! 

I heard an interview on the BBC where a Russian space expert thought that within twelve-fifteen years they will be able to launch the first manned space aircraft for a journey to Mars.

And for what good?