The Satellite Sky

In 1957, the Russians launched the unmanned Sputnik I satellite, an aluminium ball the size of a sizeable beach ball, which initiated the space race, a lengthy battle between the United States and the Soviet Union for the dominion over the universe. THE SATELLITE SKY follows the events in these years, from the first Russian success up to 1962, when the Americans managed to put the first man in orbit around the earth. Director Robert Stone uses a compilation of archival footage to tell this story. In news images, speeches by politicians, extracts from SF films and television shows, particularly the inflated, paranoid atmosphere of the Cold War is evident, for example in this quote from Lyndon B. Johnson: ‘I, for one, do not want to go to bed by the light of a Russian moon.‘