Astronomy and Space Exploration
- October 4 - Launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite.
- November 3 - Launch of Sputnik 2, with a dog called Laika on board, the first animal sent into orbit. There is no technology available to return it to earth.
- December 6 - United States attempts launch of Vanguard TV3 which fails after just two seconds in the air.
- Project Orion begins, a U.S. program to build a spacecraft powered by nuclear explosions.
- Wilhelm Gliese publishes the first Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars.
Read more about this topic: 1957 In Science
Famous quotes containing the words astronomy, space and/or exploration:
“Awareness of the stars and their light pervades the Koran, which reflects the brightness of the heavenly bodies in many verses. The blossoming of mathematics and astronomy was a natural consequence of this awareness. Understanding the cosmos and the movements of the stars means understanding the marvels created by Allah. There would be no persecuted Galileo in Islam, because Islam, unlike Christianity, did not force people to believe in a “fixed” heaven.”
—Fatima Mernissi, Moroccan sociologist. Islam and Democracy, ch. 9, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (Trans. 1992)
“The peculiarity of sculpture is that it creates a three-dimensional object in space. Painting may strive to give on a two-dimensional plane, the illusion of space, but it is space itself as a perceived quantity that becomes the peculiar concern of the sculptor. We may say that for the painter space is a luxury; for the sculptor it is a necessity.”
—Sir Herbert Read (1893–1968)
“The future author is one who discovers that language, the exploration and manipulation of the resources of language, will serve him in winning through to his way.”
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975)