Celebrating Sputnik’s 60th: A Collection of Vintage Soviet Designs

Call for entries: HOW Logo Design Competition

Deadline for entry: October 30, 2017

Today is the 60 year anniversary of when the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into space. The launch took place at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which is now the world’s oldest and largest space facility that is still in operation. Sending Sputnik into orbit hurled the world into the infamous Space Race between Cold War enemies USSR and the US.

In mid-1955 President Dwight Eisenhower declared that the nation would place a scientific satellite into orbit during the upcoming International Geophysical Year, a worldwide 18-month stretch of cooperative research. The IGY kicked off with much fanfare on July 1, 1957, with the U.S. envisioning a satellite launch later that year. But before the planned Vanguard satellite ever met its rocket, on October 4th a persistent beeping from orbit revealed that the Soviet Union had orbited the world’s first satellite, Sputnik 1, and in doing so had won the first leg of what would become a race to space.

Sputnik wasn’t much of a satellite, but it was a beefy 184-pound beach ball compared to Vanguard’s 3-pound grapefruit. Amateur skygazers, mobilized worldwide to track the first satellites, watched it pass overhead through their telescopes. And its simple beeping signal, powerful enough to be picked up by amateur radio operators around the world, left no doubt that the achievement was real.

Just a month later, on November 3rd, the USSR awed the world again by launching the first space traveler, a small mongrel dog named Laika, aboard Sputnik 2.

To read more about Sputnik 1 and 60 years of spaceflight, visit our friends over at Sky & Telescope. Or, to take a designer’s approach, celebrate this giant leap for mankind with an exploration of memorable USSR designs—from cigarette packaging to magazine covers.