Sputnik turns 50

Today it's 50 years since the Soviet union put the satelite Sputnik in orbit. Thus they beat the USA to it. Good for them. However, they never realised at the time how important this would turn out to be. It started the space race. The Soviet union was also first to send a living creature, the dog Lajka, into space. This was followed by sending the first human, Jurij Gagarin, into space in 1961.

The USA had to wait for their glory a few years, until they were finally able to be first to land on the Moon. They've always considered themselves superior to the rest of the World, so I think they deserved being beaten in the race to space.