Today, October 4, 2005, is the 48th anniversary of the USSR launch of Sputnik 1, the first earth satellite. I well remember the furor the Soviets caused in the USA in 1957 with their satellite, which among other things boosted the attendance at my parents' adult education Russian language classes(!). I had just started 7th grade then, at Buffalo, NY's PS #54, and was as interested as a grade-schooler could be in the world's missile and space programs. Almost a month later, on November 3, 1957, the Soviets lofted Sputnik 2, which carried a living but otherwise most unfortunate dog called "Laika" (which, besides being the name of a breed of Russian dog, also means "barker"). America's first satellite launch, of a Vanguard test satellite (Vanguard TV3 [test vehicle 3]: what were TV1 and 2, pray tell?) on December 6, 1957, ended ignominiously with the explosion of the launch vehicle two seconds after ignition. The American space program seemed to be in the basement. Right next door to PS #54 was a small convenience store called Van Jon's. Sometime in 1958 their magazine rack carried a little magazine titled Space World, which I used my allowance to buy (I think it sold for a quarter--like Mad magazine). I didn't get the first issue, but the issue I had mentioned a little table of artificial earth satellites compiled by Willy Ley that had appeared in the preceding issue. Sputnik 1 was designated 1957 alpha (typed in Greek) and Sputnik 2 was 1957 beta in the table. Those designations were said to have been devised by none other than astronomer Fred Whipple. Individual objects from each launch were given numerical subscripts: 1957 alpha 1 was the Sputnik 1 rocket body (which I later learned was the entire "SL-1" second stage); 1957 alpha 2 was the actual satellite; 1957 alpha 3 was a nose fairing (and this object has never been catalogued by SpaceTrack); and 1957 beta (with no subscript) was the Sputnik 2 rocket body with payload attached, the only orbited object known from that launch. I have since learned that the payload containing the dog was supposed to separate but failed to do so, and that this caused a malfunction of the thermal control system keeping the dog alive, leading to the animal's early demise. The Whipple international designations were used until the end of 1962, when they were replaced by the typographically more friendly numerical designations still in use (e.g., 1963-01A, later 1963-001A), wherein the Greek letters were replaced by numbers and the numerical subscripts were replaced by Roman letters (excluding I and O, which in the early digital age were easily confused with digits 1 and 0, respectively). The last Greek-designated launch was 1962 beta omega--three full circuits around the 24-letter Greek alphabet. That was Kosmos 12, a USSR reconsat. I picked up one subsequent issue of Space World at Van Jon's, after which I was no longer able to find the magazine on the newsstand (grade-schoolers are of limited means for such endeavors). Later, after I entered college, I found a few current issues on sale at the newsstand at the Harvard Square subway station in Cambridge, MA. The magazine had been taken over by the notorious schlock vender Ray Palmer (e.g., Fate magazine) and was reprinting parts of the Goddard Satellite Situation Report as a service to its readers, to keep them current on satellite launches. I bought copies when I could find them, but distribution was always very spotty. Incidentally, that same Harvard Square newsstand regularly carried current issues of Flight International, which I collected for several years when I lived in Cambridge--particularly those that excerpted parts of the RAE Table of Artificial Earth Satellites. It was those two early 1958 issues of Space World, as well as a 1960 issue of Time magazine that featured an article on the space program, that inspired me to maintain my own table of space launches and artificial earth satellites, an account of which I have already bored fellow list members with. Does anybody happen to know more details of the history of that little magazine? Or even have back issues for sale? A Google search of the title turned up nothing useful. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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