First off, fellow Thursday clickers, I can honestly say that it won’t be such a random click week.  If you haven’t heard it on the news shows, in the papers and zines, you may have heard about Sputnik’s fiftieth anniversary from Google’s little depiction of the first man-made and launched satellite today. I would draw you a picture of the spherical object myself, but I wouldn’t want to blind you with my stunning artistic abilities.

Secondly, and for your first direct link this historical Thursday, I’m proud to announce that the University of Nebraska Press is having an October web sale celebrating the launch of the Space Race and the launch of our new website (woo-hoo!), so rocket on over.

Now, for all things Sputnik:

Visit NASA today.  In fact, visit NASA everyday. It’s truly a great site.  For a quicker foray into the history of Sputnik, read the article "50 Years On, Sputnik Success Still Shines" on Cosmos: The Science of Everything‘s website.

A lot of quotes from the event— including the quote, "[Sputnik is] a hunk of iron almost anybody could launch" by US Rear Admiral Rawson Bennett– can be found on Physorg.com’s Space and Earth Science section.

On SpaceDaily, there is an article entitled, "50 Years after Sputnik, Russia Revives Space Ambitions."  You may recall that Russia’s space program was diminished after the fall of the Soviet Union.  Six years ago, the  Russian space station Mir closed due to funding. This short article addresses some of these issues and the future of Russia’s space program.

Lastly, Hillary Clinton is using the anniversary as an opportunity to discuss an agenda she has for science in our country. 

Enjoy the rest of your Thursday and keep looking to the stars, or the satellites, or something.