{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Sputnik","description":"Sputnik 1 (\/\u02c8sp\u028ctn\u026ak, \u02c8sp\u028atn\u026ak\/, Russian: \u0421\u043f\u0443\u0442\u043d\u0438\u043a-1, Satellite 1), often referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for three weeks before its three silver-zinc batteries became depleted. Aerodynamic drag caused it to fall back into the atmosphere on 4 January 1958. ","author_name":"Citation Needed","author_url":"http:\/\/citationpod.com","html":"