Moscow: Russia celebrated the anniversary of the launch of the satellite Sputnik on Thursday, marking 50 years to the day on 4 Oct 1957, when the launch heralded the opening of the space age. For the Russians the occasion was not only a moment for nostalgia but also a moment to pledge a revival of Soviet-era space glory.

For Russian space veterans it was a day to lay flowers at the tomb of a national icon, Sergei Korolyov, at the foot of the Kremlin''s red brick wall. Sergei Korolyov is regarded as the father of the Soviet space programme.

The launch of the 184-pound satellite prompted the US to ramp up its space programme, starting a race that eventually culminated with the Apollo programme and the landing of a man on the moon by the Americans in July 1969. As an immediate response the US launched its first satellite, Explorer 1, on January 31, 1958.

''''Without Sputnik there would have been no Apollo,'''' NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said in a speech to Russian and foreign space scientists.

Even as the Soviets worked frantically to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering hydrogen warheads into the United States, the resultant R-7 ICBM also turned out to be an ideal vehicle to launch objects into orbit. Sergei Korolyov''s team built the Sputnik in less than three months. Sputnik, Russian for satellite or fellow traveller, moved at 18,000 miles per hour and circled the Earth every 96 minutes.

The launch of the Sputnik also resulted in the conceptualisation, and eventual birth, of the Global Positioning System (GPS). A day after the launch of the Sputnik on 4 Oct 1957, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology decided to chart the satellite''s precise orbit in the sky by tuning into the "beep-beep" of its radio signal.

The frequency of the signal increased as the satellite came close overhead, and decreased as it travelled away from the scientists - a phenomenon known as the Doppler effect. Just as the Doppler effect could be used to pinpoint the location of a satellite it could also be employed to pinpoint one''s location on the ground. With such beacons in the sky, ships could pinpoint their precise position at sea, and bombs could be guided to their targets with deadly accuracy.

Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia, the United States and Europe have begun cooperating closely with each other in space. Russian spacecraft routinely ferry crews and cargo to the International Space Station. On Wednesday, 3 Oct 2007, NASA administrator, Michael Griffin, and Russian Space Agency chief, Anatoly Perminov, signed an agreement to put Russian scientific instruments on board US probes that would be sent to the moon and Mars.

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