Welcome to the Not Old Better Show. I'm your host Paul Vogel-Zang.

You are listening to the actual telemetry signal from Sputnik 1 launched October 4,

1957.

60 years ago, before most people living today were born but not our not old better audience.

We will remember that beep beep beep

of Sputnik the Soviet Union's first artificial satellite and this sound was heard

around the world.

It was the sound of wonder and foreboding.

Nothing would ever be quite the same again in geopolitics, in science and technology

in everyday life and capacity of the human species.

As part of our Smithsonian Associates, Art of Living and Newest Inside Science

Programming Series, we're joined today via Skype with Kelly B.

Kelly Beady is the award-winning senior editor for Sky and Telescope magazine

who explores the events leading up to Sputnik's launch exactly 60 years ago today,

the political fallout that led to America's response of Explorer 1,

the formation of NASA,

and the crucial but largely forgotten role that everyday citizens played in tracking these first satellites.

When Sflutnik 1 was launched on 4th, 1957, the worldwide reaction was a mix of

awe and apprehension.

American scientists knew the launch was coming because the Soviets had told them, but to the

American public, it was a dramatic wake-up call.

That of course was our guest today, Kelly Beattie, who all welcome to the not-old-better show immediately.

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