Manitowoc celebrates Sputnikfest on Saturday, September 7 with the 12th annual observance of a 20-pound piece of Russian Sputnik IV landing in the middle of North 8th street, 57-years ago this week.
The fragment fell next to the Rahr-West Art Museum during the early morning hours of September 5th, 1962. Rahr-West Executive Director Greg Vadney reflects on 2 Manitowoc police officers making the ‘very unusual find’, “They saw it in the road and they figured it was probably just a piece of hot metal that fell off of a truck. They did their rounds and then they were on their way back and it was still smoking. So they kicked it out of the hole over to the side of the road.”
Vadney explained that the U.S. military “knew this was happening.”
“They had been tracking the spaceship, they knew that the Soviets had lost control, despite the Soviets saying they hadn’t, and they knew that it was going to crash somewhere possibly in Wisconsin. So, they were on the lookout.”
The night Sputnik IV satellite crashed, the Air Force and NASA sent people out immediately. Vadney said, “the piece came down on North 8th at Park Street, at about 4 a.m. and was gone by 4 that afternoon…They took that piece, analyzed it on site, and sent it to Cambridge, Massachusets where NASA and the Smithsonian have a lab where they tested it to make sure it was what they thought it was.”
Vadney said NASA did some cast models of the space fragment and two of those are housed at the museum, while the other is at the Manitowoc Area Visitor and Convention Bureau.
A full schedule of activities to observe Sputnikfest starts at Noon tomorrow and continues throughout the afternoon and into the evening. They include a Ms. Space Debris Pageant, a $1,000 dollar Alien Drop, Costume & Alien Pet contests, Sputnik re-enactment, live music & a children’s area.
For a list of Sputnikfest events click HERE