Orbit This Ball

The Cold War fought between East and West was waged on many fronts. The US and the USSR fought the battle in propaganda and in space. One of the first entries in this battlefield was Sputnik. This was a very small sphere with radio antennas and a broadcast radio that would send out a beep beep beep signal. It was just large enough to be seen from Earth with the naked eye and the radio signal could be heard by anyone tuning to that frequency. It was the first man made object to orbit the earth.






















This model is part of the World Space Museum series and is about 1/72nd scale, the real one was about two feet in diameter. The real fear this prompted in the West was that the Soviet Union could launch space based weapons that could be launched on the United States without any warning. This kit is one Sputnik, fully assembled and painted. It snaps into a clear plastic holder that allows it to "orbit" a big blue marble painted like the continents of the Earth. The marble sits on a small base that holds the plastic holder for Sputnik.






















There were several movies made in the Cold War that have space as part of the story, one of my favorites is Ice Station Zebra. It is about US and Soviet forces racing to get a Soviet spy film that has fallen to space and been retrieved by Western researchers on an Arctic expedition, code named Ice Station Zebra. This little Sputnik, while not actually a recon satellite will fit that bill for me in a future wargame I am sure.

The American forces arrive by nuclear submarine and come up through a thin spot in the ice, the Soviet forces parachute down from the sky. Both sides have some air support and there is a short ground battle as part of the movie. I am certain that some day my Imex Korean War forces will be engaged in such a battle. I do have a nuclear sub standing by...