It was on this day fifty-three years ago that the Soviet Union launched the world's first satellite. Sergey Korolyov's original plan was to use his R-7 Semyorka to launch a 1400kg payload fully equipped with all kinds of scientific instruments, named "Object D". The Soviet Union purely wanted the R-7 to be used for military purposes and saw the satellite program as immaterial. A side-salad. But Khrushchev still gave Korolyov the go ahead. Development on Object D hit some snags along the way however. The contractors kept sending parts when, upon delivery, didn't fit where they were supposed to go. This put delays on the program. To had insult to injury, Werhner von Braun's Jupiter-C was hailed in the American press and Korolyov feared loosing the milestone of first satellite to the US. So a decision was made to strip "Object D" down to an 84kg package containing only a few radio radio transmitters. This would secure Russia the position of being the first to launch a satellite and the original Object D concept would be postponed to a later date. In retrospect, Korolyov had nothing to worry about. Although von Braun had perfected his Jupiter-C in 1956, it was derived from his Nazi V-2 rocket. The American government was reluctant to let their first satellite be launched using Nazi technology. They wanted their first satellite to be 100% made in the USA. So the satellite contract went to the US Navy, who were still in the process of finalizing their plans when Sputnik ...