I remember watching Sputnik 1, 2, & 3, and echo 1, and 2 many times. At that time I lived on my dad’s farm in the middle of the San Joaquin valley, where the skies were very dark. I could actually see the Milky Way. Many times I would lay in the middle of the road looking up at the sky and seeing all kinds of satellites passing over. I would stick my arm up so it would glow with any approaching cars headlights. :-) Stupid huh.

Does anybody remember Atlas 10 B? I believe it was December 1958. It was an Air force Atlas they put in a little extra fuel and no payload except for a transmitter with a message from President Eisenhower playing over and over, and put it in orbit. Just a publicity stunt to show the Russians we could put up big satellites. Thus an ICBM in orbit.