Editor's note: 47 years ago this month, the Soviets shocked the world by launching the first man-made satellite into orbit.  Sputnik 1 was only the size of a basketball but it marked the beginning of a new era in humanities history—space exploration.  In light of this momentous anniversary, we cannot forget Fairbanks' unique role in this historic occasion.  This column originally appeared in the Alaska Science Forum, Oct. 21, 1977.

 For twenty years it has been said that the first persons in the Western Hemisphere to see a satellite, Sputnik I, were scientists of the Geophysical Institute at Fairbanks. All these years I have remained silent, but now I reveal the truth—they were not the first.

Early on the morning of October 6, 1957, the Geophysical Institute scientists picked up the radio signal from Sputnik. One of them stepped outside to view the sky and immediately saw, high overhead, the Sputnik.  This was the first reported sighting on this continent.

Several days later I was discussing the sighting of the Sputnik with my neighbor, Dexter Stegemeyer, and he casually said, "Oh yes, I saw it, too." At first he was reluctant to give details but finally came out with the full story.

That morning, well before dawn, he was sitting in his outhouse. The door of the outhouse was open and faced to the west. Mr. Stegemeyer said he was just sitting there enjoying the beauty of the stars twinkling in the sky when he saw a strange moving star come up out of the west.

Though not a scientist by training, Stege, as we called him, was a good observer and a thinker. He said that he did not know that the Russian satellite had been launched some hours before. Yet he reasoned that the object he saw was a strange new thing. From its speed and uniform passage across the sky, he knew it could not be an airplane, a meteor or any other familiar phenomenon.

His was the first sighting since he saw Sputnik lower in the western sky than did those at the Geophysical Institute.

Stege and his family left Alaska some years after the launch of Sputnik, but the outhouse from whence he made the sighting still stands.

This column is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research community. T. Neil Davis is a seismologist at the institute.  

Sputnik 1 was launched by the U.S.S.R on Oct. 6, 1947, beginning the great "space race." A Fairbanks' man, busy doing his business, was the first person in the Northern Hemisphere to spot the satellite as it orbited the earth.
Photo courtesy NASA.

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