"Each of these first rockets was like a beloved woman for us," he said. "We were in love with every rocket, we desperately wanted it to blast off successfully."

While the government gave approval in January 1956, the military brass wanted to keep the missile for the bomb program, [Georgy Grechko], 76, said in an interview. "They treated the satellite as a toy, a silly fantasy of [Sergei Korolyov]."

"Better than anyone else Korolyov understood how important it was to open the space era," Grechko said. "The Earth had just one moon for a billion years and suddenly it would have another, artificial moon!"