A point could be made the Space Age began when Goddard, Oberth and Tsiolkovsky laid down the theoretical foundations roughly a century ago. With the mathematical and conceptual tools these men provided, a space mafia (which survives to this day on these boards!) began working on making it happen. But no one except a few starry-eyed dreamers like us really took it seriously until Sputnik. I was 10 years old when it was launched but I was not surprised, I'd been boosting space exploration already for years. I was a science/space geek and I knew it was inevitable, but I remember people took space (and me!) much more seriously after that. Next to our landing on the moon, Sputnik was the most profound and vindicating moment of my life.