On this day in 1958, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 3.
The first attempt to launch Sputnik 3, on February 3, 1958, failed, but the second on May 15 succeeded, and it carried a large array of instruments for geophysical research. Read more
Jacksonville astronomers had their first close-up look at the rocket casing of Russias Sputnik III satellite. Ernest Rowland, president of the Jacksonville Astronomy Club, reported an excellent sighting of the rocket section. The casing was 12 feet long and 5 feet in diameter and was estimated to weigh as much as an automobile. Rowland and several other amateur astronomers viewed the object through a 15-power telescope for about three minutes as it passed over in the sky over Jacksonville. The Smithsonian Astronomical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass. estimated its altitude at 200 miles.