History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world’s first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (58 cm.or 22.8 inches in diameter), weighed only 83.6 kg. or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race. – from NASA’s website

I remember the day well. I was in the 6th grade. I remember taking a ball of clay and sticking toothpicks in it – my Sputnik model! Thirteen years later, I was tracking Sputnik’s successors from a radar site in eastern Turkey.

Sputnik (which is just the Russian word for satellite and is pronounced properly with a long “u,” not the way most Americans, including me, pronounce it) didn’t really do anything. It transmitted a radio signal which essentially said, “I’m up here orbiting the earth, and you’re not.” It worked for about three weeks until its batteries died. It decayed into the atmosphere not long after.

But the idea of Sputnik started the space age…and the space race, provoking the Sputnik Crisis, which resulted in a burst of interest in training more scientists and engineers in the US.

Today you hold way more computing power in your hand (we call it a phone for reasons I don’t understand) than we used to put a man on the moon in 1969. The maps on your phone take you anywhere you want to go with GPS, which is a constellation of satellites, dating back to 1973.

We’ve come a long way. The first airplane flew just over 120 years ago; the first satellite, 67 years ago. We put a man on the moon 55 years ago, and now we have space tourism.

Technologically, we’re doing fine. Now if we could just solve our behavior problems!

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6.6, ESV)

And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. (Genesis 11.5, 6, ESV)

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Romans 1.18 – 23, ESV)