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What Was the First Piece of Man-Made Space Junk?

Posted by Cliff on from the flying-out-of-the-atmo dept.

Splynn asks: "I was wondering about what the very first man made object to leave Earth's atmosphere was. We all know that Sputnik was the first man made satellite, but there must have been something that actually made it out there befor Sputnik." For those who are curious, Sputnik was launched on October 4, 1957. Sputnik may have been the first satellite to orbit the earth, but was it really the first successful launch into space?

1 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. Define atmosphere by PD · · Score: 2, Insightful

    When you say leave the atmosphere, you're not saying much. Even low earth orbit satellites such as the shuttle are in the atmosphere, just a very thin part of it.

    If you set some altitude then you can figure out easily which rocket was first.

    One of the V2 rockets fired by the United States in 1949 reached an altitude of about 250 miles. This was a modified configuration from the way it was originally built by the Germans.

    --
    If tits were wings it'd be flying around.