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| What Happened in Manitowoc in September 1962? "Millionaire" Game Show Asks $100,000 Question |
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| 02/11/2007 |
| On a recent "Millionaire" game show, the $100,000 question asked what happened in Manitowoc in September 1962. The crash of the Sputnik was one of four choices. The contestant didn't know the answer. The SPUTNIK IV was launched at Balkanur, USSR, May 14, 1960. On June 15, Ground Control at Balkanur began to program the maneuver that would fire retro-rockets and bring the space craft back to earth. The incline of the rocket was inaccurate, however, due to the failure of the ship's orientation system and the vehicle assumed an elliptical orbit. SPUTNIK IV could not be recovered. Several years later, the SPUTNIK IV began a slow plunge to Earth. At about 4:30 am Central Standard Time on September 5, 1962, a piece, 20 cm by 8 cm hit almost precisely on the center line of North 8th Street in front of the Rahr-West Art Museum (look for the brass ring in the street). Two Manitowoc patrolmen discovered the fragment and turned it over to authorities. Officials at NASA and the Smithsonian Institution identified threads arranged in the metric system and the detecton of two minerals created by heat and friction of re-entry. The piece was later returned to the Soviets. It was dedicated in September 1987 marking the 25th anniversary of the historic crash. There is a brass ring in the middle of the street in front of the Rahr-West Art Museum where the fragment was found imbedded in the pavement. Today an exact replica of the SPUTNIK IV fragment is on display at the Rahr-West Art Museum and at the Visitor Information Center, a reminder of that time when space was a new frontier and Manitowoc was able to briefly share in the mystery and adventure. As a result of the recent yet brief national attention of the SPUTNIK IV on the "Millionaire" game show and to commemorate the historic event, a new festival is being planned for September 5-6, 2008 in Manitowoc, WI. |
