The first artificial satellite of the Earth was launched on 4 October 1957, the International Year of Geophysics. Sputnik 1 ("companion" in Russian) left a launch pad at the Baikonour space base in the USSR. The steady beep beep emitted by this rudimentary 83 kg device was to gain worldwide fame. Sputnik opened up the way for interplanetary travel and fired the starting gun on the space race between the US and the USSR. Two months later, the Soviets were first to send a living creature into space, a dog called Laika. The Americans would follow in February 1958.