On the night of October 4, 1957, the world changed in a way few could have predicted. From the vast steppes of Kazakhstan, a Soviet rocket thundered into the sky, carrying with it a polished sphere no bigger than a beach ball. Once the roar of the launch faded, the silence of space was pierced by a sound unlike any other. Across continents, through static-filled radios, came the steady, insistent pulse of a signal from orbit: beep-beep, beep-beep. That mechanical heartbeat announced to every corner of the Earth that humanity had placed its first artificial satellite in space. Its name was Sputnik, and its voice was both a triumph and a warning.