Sputniks over Britain
DOI: 10.1063/1.3062643
Shortly after midnight on October 5 at precisely 0015 GMT, the British Broadcasting Corporation listening station at Tatsfield, just south of London, recorded the now famous “beep‐beep” of Sputnik I on its very first transit. News of this detection and the official Russian announcement of the satellite launching were flashed almost simultaneously to a startled world. Thus began two months of feverish but magnificent improvisation and observation which saw the British in the forefront of the Western scientists engaged in tracking the Russian satellites.
More about the Authors
George C. Sponsler. US Office of Naval Research, American Embassy, London.
