Question

In which year was Sputnik 1 launched?
a. 1957
b. 1975
c. 1950
d. 1948

Answer 1

Hint:
It was launched by the Soviet Union into an elliptical low Earth orbit. It orbited for 3 weeks before the satellite batteries died and then it orbited silently for two months before it fell back into the atmosphere.

Complete solution:
Sputnik 1 was launched in 1957, 4th October. It was the first artificial Earth Satellite. The satellite travelled 29,000 kilometres per hour taking 96.2 minutes to complete an orbit. It transmitted on 20.005 and 40.002 MHz which were monitored by radio operators throughout the world.

The control system of Sputnik was adjusted to an intended orbit of 223 by 1,450 km with an orbital period of 101.5 min.

The satellite's success was rather unanticipated but it precipitated the American Sputnik crisis triggering the Space Race, part of the Cold War. The launch of Sputnik 1 was the beginning of a new era of political, military, technological and scientific developments.
Tracking and studying Sputnik 1 provided scientists with valuable information like the density of the upper atmosphere could be deduced, the propagation of its radio signals gave data about the ionosphere.

Sputnik burned up on 4 January 1958 while returning to Earth’s surface after three months. It completed 1440 orbits of the Earth and travelled a distance of about 70 million km.


Hence, the correct answer is option A.

Note:
Sputnik 1 was not immediately used for the propaganda of the Soviet Union. The Soviets had kept it a secret about their earlier accomplishments in rocketry. They feared that it would lead to secrets being revealed and failures being exploited by the West.