Sixty years ago today, on October 4, 1957, the USSR laughed Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit around earth.  I was just four years old.

Catching the western world by surprise, this launch was the first visible sign of the Soviet Union’s growing supremacy in space technology.  I grew up in the midst of this space race, with utter fascination in all things related to space travel.

It was several years before I gave up my dreams of becoming an astronaut to focus electrical engineering!