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| A Sputnik 3 First Day Cover, postmarked in Moscow with a hand cancel on July 16, 1958, signed by Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to travel into space. |
Sputnik 3, launched on May 15, 1958, was the Soviet Union's first major scientific satellite and the third Soviet artificial Earth satellite. It was developed primarily as a scientific laboratory to study Earth's upper atmosphere and near-Earth space during the International Geophysical Year (IGY).
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| Photo: The orbital trajectory of Sputnik 3. |
Sputnik 3 originated as Object D, an ambitious spacecraft that chief designer Sergei Korolev and his team had initially intended to make the Soviet Union’s first satellite. When development took longer than expected, Korolev created the much simpler Sputnik 1 to ensure a Soviet satellite could be launched during the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Object D was eventually completed and launched as Sputnik 3.
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| Photo: A photograph of Sputnik 3 released by the Soviet press on May 18, 1958. |
An initial attempt to launch the satellite on February 3, 1958, failed when the launch vehicle malfunctioned. The backup spacecraft was successfully launched on May 15, 1958, from the Baikonur launch site.
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| Photo: William Pickering referred to the Sputnik 3 spacecraft as "interesting but confusing" after reviewing a copy of the United Press Telephoto depicting Russia's latest satellite. |
Sputnik 3’s primary scientific setback was the failure of its onboard data recorder soon after launch. The recorder was used to store measurements while the satellite was outside the range of Soviet ground stations, so its failure resulted in the loss of important data, especially regarding the Van Allen radiation belts. Nevertheless, Sputnik 3 continued to provide valuable scientific and engineering data throughout its mission.
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| A cover commemorating Sputnik 3's achievement of completing 1,000 orbits in space, postmarked in Vilnius with a special hand cancel dated July 27, 1958. |
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| A cover commemorating Sputnik 3's achievement of completing 3,000 orbits in space, postmarked in Moscow with a regluar hand cancel on December 19, 1958. Also postmarked with a black Moscow special hand cancel. |
