From Flopnik It Came

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Først var rummet tomt ... så kom sputnik og derefter alle de andre ...
/Sik

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First space was empty ... the came Sputnik and after that all the rest ...
/Sik




Quote

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On December 6, 1957, hot on the heels of Sputnik, the United States Navy readied the first American satellite, Vanguard, for launch. The grapefruit-sized device lofted 3 feet from Earth before it exploded. Press and public jeered, dubbing it “Flopnik.” (“The exact cause is classified,” says the crisp narrator in a vintage video [below] of the attempt.) A red-faced U.S. government redoubled their efforts. Within a year and a half, Vanguard’s replacement took the first measurements of Earth’s upper atmosphere and its successor, Vanguard II, the first scan of Earth’s clouds. Meanwhile, NASA, the agency charged with managing this new technology, was born.

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Read more: http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-%2526-space/article/2008-09/flopnik-it-came

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