50th anniversary of Sputnik launch

On October 4, 1957 at 19:28:34 GMT, now 50 years ago a beeping aluminum 22-inch sphere called Sputnik 1 marked the beginning of the so called 'Space Age'.

Today there are many satellites and space ships and a space station orbiting around the world. The designers of the first satellite described it as a simple one, but it was ingeniously simple.

Sputnik 1 (Russian: "Спутник-1", "Satellite-1", or literally "Co-traveler-1" byname ПС-1 (PS-1, i.e. "Простейший Спутник-1", or Elementary Satellite-1)) was the first artificial satellite to be put into geocentric orbit. Launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, it was the first satellite of the Sputnik program.

The launch provoked a great resonance in the world. The Russian word sputnik quickly entered into many languages. The first pages of world press were filled with headlines that expressed admiration to the achievement of the Soviet Union. It was described as the greatest sensation of the century and the Russian wonder that opened the space era.

This event lead to the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States and changed the course of history.

It finally led to man's first step on Moon, satellites exploring
the outer reaches of our solar system, satellite TV, improved weather forecasts and a higly improved communications infrastructure including the internet. It even had an impact on art and inspires artists until today, what can bee seen even here on deviantart.

here is small collection of sputnik related deviations created by various deviants: