On this date, forty-seven years ago, from the windy steppes of Kazakhstan, a missile, originally designed to deliver a deadly warhead, sundered the skies. But its payload was not a bomb, but a basketball-sized sphere of metal with transponders. Its destination was not another territory on earth, but the semi-permanent freefall of outer space. It was the first object since the dawn of time, crafted by humans, to enter orbit around our planet. It was the beginning of the space age.

As I write these words, it's still dark in Mojave, California. If it's a typical night there, the winds are high, even howling, rattling the rafters of the airport hangars, many of which were built years before that first satellite launch. But in an hour or so, the rising sun will slowly illuminate the desert, and the winds will die down. A crowd will be gathered to watch an ungainly-looking aircraft, resembling mating birds or insects, as it taxis out to challenge the heavens for the second time within less than a week.

If today's flight is successful, and the prize is won, many may look back on this anniversary as a dual one. October 4th will not only be commemorated as the day that the old space age began, but perhaps, the new one as well.

Surprisingly, it's been almost dead calm since last night. Here's hoping it stays that way for a few more hours...

I remember that night as a seven year-old, watching Sputnik ominously arc across the sky of our back yard. My Dad wouldn't talk, it really shook us all up.

But I couldn't be any happier with the way the story has turned out, forty-seven years later!

I remember hearing about it on my brother's short-wave radio. I've never forgotten what it felt like.

I would never want to go back to earlier times, but I do feel sorry for the children of today. We were there at the beginning of space flight. And, though it mattered at the time, I don't give a rat's ass today who started it, or why.

It's enough that they took that first step to get us where we are today.

There will be private spaceflight not only in my lifetime, but in the next decade. I am in awe.

Those of us who remember will appreciate that John of Argghhh! has posted the sound file.