I waited to see if there was a post on the following. I thought it would be of interest to the list especially the new members as Monday 10/4 was an anniversary to their hobby or proffesion and in all due respect to the founders and list members of SeeSat-L it's how it all began. >From The Learning Kingdom's Today in History October 4, 1957 The Soviet Union became the first nation to go into space when it launched the human-made satellite Sputnik-I into orbit 500 miles above the Earth. The Sputnik (meaning "companion" or "fellow traveler") was launched from Kazakhstan (Kazakh SSR), and it stayed in orbit for about three months. The influence of Sputnik's launching on the US was decisive: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/features/sputnik/