Satellites in Space (1965)

Celebrating 58 years since Sputnik 1 was launched  (October 4th) I have a big Satellite post for you!

One of the joys of going through these old kids books is seeing books that were actually used by kids.  Here is a coloring book highlighting most of the recent satellites that children were aware of in 1965. An unknown child colored a number of these in this book and I find them charming.

The coloring book itself is really fun. The artist/author tried to give each satellite a personality as well as a basic fact or two about their mission.

You would not think that Sputnik 1 or Explorer could look so friendly. But these drawing give the sense of friendly observers watching over us.

It is also a nice history of how communication was the first mission of many satellites followed by observation.

Exploration and information gathering was yet another role for satellites and the artist tries to make them into heroes.

There were also the satellites involved in the exploration of the moon and planets as we contemplated how they might be explored.

This Ranger illustration may be my favorite!

Finally are the "other" satellites (including a space station). This is one of the few places I have ever heard some of these mentioned outside of some rather dry adult histories of space exploration.

Hope you enjoyed this colorful history of early satellites.