Thursday will be the 50th anniversary of the launch and orbit of the world's first artificial satellite.

An American rocket did not carry the 184-pound payload into orbit. The first artificial satellite was lifted into space on a Soviet R-7 rocket.

The metallic sphere that circled the globe at 18,000 miles per hour was called Sputnik 1. It was mankind's first sustained venture into space. It was also a major humiliation for Americans who assumed our technological advantage over the Russians was insurmountable.

But there Sputnik was, cruising in a low orbit. Every 90 minutes for 1,440 revolutions, the Russians -- and by extension, Communism -- had a world-wide forum that "confirmed" the "superiority" of its system. If Soviet science was so far ahead of ours, who could doubt Soviet politics was enlightened, too?

Sputnik was an unparalleled propaganda windfall for the Communists. Russia's accomplishment in space made America take the space race seriously. It was the catalyst American educators and politicians needed to make the accelerated teaching of math and sciences a matter of national interest and security.

The edge the Russians had with Sputnik was short-lived. The Russians launched animals into space as well as the first human, but America had been galvanized into effective action. Playing catch-up made it possible to learn from Russia's mistakes.

President John F. Kennedy made landing an American astronaut on the moon by the end of the decade a national priority.

President Kennedy didn't live to see it accomplished in 1969, but he had made it happen. The first moon walk came a dozen years after Sputnik shocked a complacent nation into caring about space more than it thought it ever could.

In many ways, Sputnik was the best thing that ever happened to our nation's educational system. Our national pride took a short-term beating, but watching Sputnik streak across the nighttime sky did the world a lot of good in the long run.