Fifty-five years ago today, the Space Race was kicked into gear by a silver basketball flying through the sky. Sputnik 1, the Soviet probe that became the first manmade object to reach space, launched ...

The Sputnik 8K71PS rocket streaks across the sky over Montreal on its way to deliver Sputnik 1 into orbit. Scientists from the California Institute of Technology track Sputnik 1 from a mobile van.