57 First Rocket launched into Orbit by Paintings by Norman Neasom (1915 - 2010)
First Rocket launched into Orbit
Mixed Media: Signed- Dated and Inscribed
Image: 290mm x 215mm - Framed: 500mm x 410mm
It was in 1957 that Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite was launched into space. It was a 585 mm (23 in) diameter shiny metal sphere, with four external radio antennae to broadcast radio pulses
The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957. It was visible all around the Earth and its radio pulses detectable
The painting Norman worked on at the time shows a very dramatic scene where the faces of the figures looking up to space reflected the burners of the rocket.
The surprise success precipitated the American Sputnik crisis, began the Space Age and triggered the Space Race, a part of the larger Cold War. The launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments
