Today, October 4th, marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik (Fellow Traveler).

"We Were First" 

"At 22:28 Moscow time on October 4, 1957, humanity entered a new space age. The Soviet Union sent the Earth's first artificial satellite into orbit."

Sergei Korolyov was the creator of Sputnik.

I was just three years old when Sputnik caused "America to be seized by panic."

A second event was launched that day….the Space Race was the other.

Japan wants to be invited to future Space celebrations -

Japan's Lunar Spacecraft Set for Launch

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China, too…China, Japan, U.S. plan Moon visits.

But, no matter what…Russia will always be able to say they were first.

What has happened since then is the question.

The country may have been first to do a lot of things in space

1. Yury Gagarin was the first human in space.

The United States went ahead in the Space Race when Neil Armstrong was the first to step on the moon.

No matter, Russia is still playing catch up on the ground.

Japan may be invited to future space celebrations…but for now, it seems like Russia would like to just celebrate alone, and point fingers.

What do you think?

See also -

China Answers with Two Firsts to Russia's Sputnik