Sputnik 1 starts space race 50 years ago

Sputnik 1: Oct. 4, 1957The "Sputnik crisis" was a turning point of the Cold War that began on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 1 satellite. With its intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7 Semyorka, Russia was first out of the starting blocks in the space race.

The "simplest satellite"

Called PS-1, for "Prosteishiy Sputnik" — the Simplest Satellite, Sputnik 1 weighing just 184 pounds, was built in less than three months. Soviet designers built a pressurized sphere of polished aluminum alloy with two radio transmitters and four antennas.

Sergey Korolyov

Sergey Korolyov, both visionary scientist and iron-willed manager, pressed the Kremlin to let him launch a satellite. The reaction of the world so impressed Khrushchev that he pressed Korolyov to do it again. Working round-the-clock, Korolyov and his team built another spacecraft in less than a month. On Nov. 3, they launched Sputnik 2, which weighed 1,118 pounds. It carried the world's first living payload, a mongrel dog named Laika, in its tiny pressurized cabin.

Sputnik creates initiatives in science and math

The Sputnik crisis spurred a whole chain of U.S. initiatives, including NASA, NSF, DARPA, and even the "New Math".

The finish line - stepping on the Moon

Russia continued its lead in the space race with a moon probe, a photo of the far side of the Moon, a human in orbit, a woman in orbit, extra-vehicular activity, landing a probe on another planet (Venus), and the first space station. The United States captured the biggest prize, though, putting a human on the Moon (July 20, 1969).

Tags : space, satellite, united states, orbit, Russia, space race, sputnik, korolyov, Oct. 4, 1957

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U.S. population, 300 million: from Wikimedia As I entered college in the fall of 1967, the population of the United States reached 200 million. Now, 40 years later, it will hit 300 million (about Oct. 15).
Our population is effected by deaths, births, and migration. Here are the current rates for each:

• One birth every.................................. 7 seconds
• One death every.................................. 13 seconds
• One international migrant (net) every............ 31 seconds
• Net gain of one person every..................... 11 seconds

The U.S. Bureau of the Census has a website projecting the current resident population of the United States (click link for today's number). At 300 million, the United States is the world's third most populous nation, though it remains far behind the growing economic superpowers of China (1.31 billion) and India (1.09 billion).

Minority children become a majority

Now, according to the Population Reference Bureau, almost half of all children under age 5 are members of a racial or ethnic minority.

Other changes since 1970

• The suburbs share of the population grew from 38 percent to 50 percent (share of population living in central cities stagnated at around 30 percent).
• The population in the South and West grew from 38 percent to 48 percent of the nations total.
• Persons living alone rose from 18 percent to 26 percent. Households with five or more people almost halved, from 20 percent to 11 percent.
• Women in the workforce grew from 43 percent to 59 percent.
• Persons over 24 with high school diplomas soared from 55 percent to 85 percent.

Source: Population Reference Bureau, and RedOrbit

Tags : united states, population, demographics, 300 million, minorities, immigration, birth, death

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