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Credit: NASA
Fifty-four years ago today (Oct. 4), the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite, and humanity's race into space began. Now a weeklong international space celebration marks that date and highlights all the good that has come from reaching for the stars.
The 12th annual World Space Week kicks off today, with organizations around the globe holding events to acknowledge the contributions of space science and technology to life on Earth. This year's festivities will focus on the theme "50 Years of Human Spaceflight," a nod to cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's historic orbital flight of April 12, 1961.
Activities this year include a Czech student's flight on a zero-gravity plane, a workshop about space technology applications in Vietnam and a public talk by European Space Agency astronaut Hans Schlegel in Melbourne, Australia.
"What we hope to do is bring attention to space itself, its uses and the exploration and utilization of space as it can benefit humankind and improve the socioeconomic status of people around the world," said Angela Peura, the Washington, D.C. representative of the World Space Week Association. [Rocket Science in Your Car: 7 Space Technologies On the Road]
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