Sputnik 50 years later: New evidence on its origins

Despite many revelations on the origins of Sputnik in the 1990s, there still remained some important unanswered questions. For example, we know that chief designer Sergey Korolev first wrote to the Soviet government in May 1954 asking for approval to develop a satellite. Yet, Soviet leaders responded with a decree nearly 2 years later in January 1956. What happened during this period? And why did the Soviet government finally approve Korolev's plane when it did?New evidence now answers some key questions on the decision-making behind Sputnik. Documents declassified at two Russian state archives now show that two previously unknown dates almost exactly a year apart were critical to the approval of Sputnik: August 10, 1954, and August 8, 1955. On the former date, for the very first time, the Soviet government approved limited work on space exploration. On the second date, the government approved a dedicated satellite project. In this paper, I show that even in the pre-Sputnik years, the space plans of the Soviet Union were fundamentally tied to those of the United States, and vice versa. In essence, the new evidence shows that the “Space Race” between the two superpowers began long before the launch of Sputnik, and that a crucial player in the beginning of this race was a most unlikely player, the print media in both nations.