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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  • Person [he/him]
    ·
    3 months ago

    I have a few friends who have mentioned to me that they barely do any work at their job, especially remote workers. One of them says they literally only work 6 hours a week.

    Is this common??

    For the past like 3 years I've been at a very micro-managey company that incessantly tracks time, so I've been pulling a solid 40+ hours a week. Job security is good, but damn, if I could go work somewhere where I can slack off more, that time would be invaluable. I'd love to read more

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      3 months ago

      It's not unheard of. Depends heavily on your workplace and role, but there really are places where they need you, but they only need you for a couple of hours a day, but they need you and if you're not they're then they're fucked and if they tried to give you some kind of low hours contract you'd tell them to fuck off.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        3 months ago

        I had a job like that doing late night returns at a car rental place waaaay back before the process was mostly automated. Only a few cars came in each hour and I didn't have to do much, but they did need a warm body in the booth to take the returns. So I had a ton of time where i was just sitting in my booth reading until the next car came.

    • Blockocheese [any]
      ·
      3 months ago

      There's someone like that in my department but they got that position from failing upwards and being friends with a higher up