69 years ago, on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite, twice the size of a basketball with a diameter of 58 cm, featured four whip-like radio antennas with springs, weighed 83.6 kg, and took approximately 98 minutes to orbit Earth in an elliptical trajectory at an altitude of 900 km. The two chief designers of Sputnik I were Sergei Korolev and Kerim Kerimov.