Sputnik satellite had a simple radio transmitter and a silver-zinc battery pack. The satellite broadcasted a series of repeated beeps to show that USSR had succeeded in launching the first man-made satellite.  The satellite was filled with nitrogen gas and fitted with a fan to cool if the temps went above 85°F.

        The satellite orbited the Earth with an elliptical orbit apogee of 584 miles and perigee of 143 miles at the speed of 18,000 miles an hour circling the globe every 96 mins for 1440 times in a little over three months.

        Sputnik was launched using a redesigned version of the R-7 rocket. It weighed more than 272 tons (22 tons without fuel), used kerosene as fuel and liquid oxygen as the oxidizer. To reduce the weight of the rocket, the military warhead, measurement hardware, top avionics section containing vibration monitoring system, cables and the considerable portion of the flight control hardware, including radio control systems, were removed.