USSR misjudged importance of Sputnik satellite

The Soviet Union did not immediately grasp the importance of its Sputnik satellite after launching it 50 years ago, triggering a space race with the United States, said the son of then USSR leader Nikita Krushchev. "The consequences became clear much later. At the time it was like sending a ball far away," Sergei Krushchev, an expert on Russia at Brown University in Rhode Island, told a forum on the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik's launch on Monday. More

(Source: AFP - Nov 30)