Rank 1 opens the International Space catalog with Sputnik 1 — the PS-1 payload Sergei Korolev's OKB-1 team placed in orbit on 4 October 1957 atop the R-7, ancestor of every Soyuz launcher that followed. The 215 × 939 km elliptical orbit and 20 MHz / 40 MHz radio beacon turned a polished metal sphere with four trailing antennae into the sound track of the Space Age — a beep heard worldwide that triggered the Space Race and forced Western policy makers to treat orbit as territory rather than fantasy. Twenty-two days of active life from Baikonur proved Korolev's R-7 could deliver mass to space reliably enough to threaten intercontinental ballistic missile timelines. Constructivist linocut renders the stippled sphere hero, dense cream archive panel, and Soviet Space Program footer badges exactly as the master PNG dictates.