Sputnik Satellite 3D-Printable Detailed Scale Model

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The download contains various file formats for 3D-printing or rendering a detailed model of Sputnik. The model is full sized but all features are large enough to be printed when scaled down somewhat. Sputnik was the first manmade satellite ever sent into earth orbit - along with the second stage of the rocket that carried it - and has become a somewhat iconic symbol of anything from the space race to human spaceflight in general. The satellite itself was relatively simple in order to make it rather lightweight with the technology at the time and speed up construction - due to the time pressure of the politically motivated spacerace more complex plans were postponed and a strikingly simple design was chosen as the first satellite which could be built quickly in order to send it up before the americans would send up theirs. It did however at least measure temperature which would be encoded into the length of it's iconic beeping noise, serving it's main purpose - proving it existed and proving that putting a satellite into orbit was indeed possible. This beeping noise was transmitted in all directions via radio from it's four antennas radiating from it's spherical main body. The satellite was launched in October 1957 on amodified R7 missile often simply referred to as the "Sputnik Rocket" itself and eventually decayed and fell back to earth due to risidual atmospheric drag in 1958.