What I learned this week:
The first human object launched into space wasn’t Sputnik 1.
Sputnik 1 was the first human-made object intentionally launched into space.
But the first actual object?
A manhole cover was accidentally blown off a test shaft during a nuclear test in Nevada 38 days earlier. It reached speeds equal to six times Earth’s escape velocity and was never found. Scientists debate whether it reached space or vaporized in the atmosphere, but most agree that it almost certainly left the Earth’s atmosphere.
A manhole cover…
Somehow seems appropriate.
