The Guardian
By Frederick O’Brien, Ashley Kirk and Oliver Holmes
Tue 31 Mar 2026 06.15 EDT
Last modified on Tue 31 Mar 2026 06.17 EDT
For hundreds of thousands of years, Earth’s orbit has been a vast and empty space – free from the impact of busy humans below, scurrying around on the surface of the planet.
But in 1957, Soviet Union scientists achieved a historic breakthrough, sending a metal ball with four radio antennae – called Sputnik – so high and speeding so fast that it would reach such a velocity that it would spin in orbit around Earth.
Super Sleuth
