17 Jul
2015
17 Jul
'15
11:31 a.m.
As far as I can tell, that was October 16, 1957 — 12 days after Sputnik. —Dan
The USA did indeed beat the Russians in creating the first artificial satellite, they exploded a rocket nose containing a lot of ball bearings and explosive. Result, some of the balls went into orbit. This was well known and was announced. It was, however, an extremely stupid idea for the future of space-trash. It is impressive how awesomely irresponsible a lot of power-mad US scientists and/or those employing them, were, another example being the mega bombing of, and leaving of radioactive waste on, various Pacific atolls for absolutely no good reason.