Manitowoc, Wisconsin September 5, 1962 "The Sky is Falling...." Pictured here are the squad car officers who first saw the remnant of Sputnik, which had apparently just fallen on this spot at the end of North Eighth and Park Street in front of the Rahr West Art Museum. (then known as Rahr Civic Center) Officers Ronald Rusboldt and Marvin Bauch are pictured at the site of the landing. They were particularly astute at associating the news of the disintegrating of Russian Sputnik IV over Wisconsin with their recovery of this sizable piece of hot metal. The Brass Ring that marks the spot on North Eighth Street in Manitowoc, WI. Other Sputnik Articles in PDF Metal Chunk Blasts Hole in City Street Mystery Object Rahr West Civic Center Director Lozar Space Chunk Contains Two Rare Minerals Who's Got Sputnik? - Senator William Proxmire . . . Solviets Skip Noise in Taking Sputnik Chunk The UFO the city will never forget by Michael Duvall Maritime Museum Article Harvard Article on Space Chunk Join Manitowoc, WI in the celebration of this Historic Event at Sputnikfest 2008 to be held Sept. 5th & 6th, 2008.	Sputnik IV was launched at Balkanur, USSR, May 14, 1960. Upon reaching orbit, the 3,200 lb. satellite began transmitting data back to Earth about a dummy "Astronaut" placed aboard the unmanned spacecraft. On June 15, Ground Control at Balkanur began to program the maneuver that would fire retro-rockets and bring the spacecraft 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. Transmission of temperature and pressure data from the erratic satellite continued until September of 1962, when the spacecraft 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, near the intersection of Park Street, in front of the Rahr West Art Museum (see brass ring in the street). The impact of the piece imbedded it three inches in the blacktop pavement. Later, small charred fragments were found on a nearby church roof, but despite an intensive search, no other fragments of Sputnik IV were ever found. Two Manitowoc patrolmen, Marvin Bauch and Ronald Rusboldt, discovered the fragment and turned it over to authorities. Officials at NASA and the Smithsonian Institute identified threads arranged in the metric system, and the detection of two minerals created by the heat and friction of re-entry; wustite and akaganeite. When the fragment was first offered to the Soviets, they declined its return, but eventually accepted the piece in a quiet ceremony. Sputnik IV Fragment Replica On September 17, 1963, the Manitowoc Common Council accepted two replicas of the Sputnik IV made by NASA. Two months later members of Lodge 516, International Association of Machinists, Manitowoc, arranged to permanently mark the spot on North 8th Street where Sputnik IV landed. The passing of years and the progress of space exploration caused interest in the Manitowoc fragment to dwindle until the Spring of 1979 when the re-entry of Skylab into the Earth's atmosphere once again brought Sputnik IV into prominence. Television personality, Hugh Downs, and a film crew from ABC's news magazine "20-20" visited the museum to film a segment on falling spacecraft. They were followed by reporters from Milwaukee, Chicago, and Green Bay. Today the replicas of the Sputnik IV fragment remain on display at the Rahr West Art Museum and the Manitowoc Visitor Information Center (on permanent loan from the Manitowoc Police Department), as reminders of that time when space was a new frontier, and Manitowoc was able to briefly share in the mystery and adventure. The Brass Ring that marks the spot on North Eighth Street in Manitowoc, WI.