The galleries of the Rahr-West Art Museum contain paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe, Picasso, and Andy Warhol. They also contain a piece not even the Met or the Getty or the Louvre can equal — a piece of space junk. It’s not here because it’s art. It’s here because it crashed right outside.
It was with much fanfare that the Soviet Union launched Korabl-Sputnik 1, dubbed “Sputnik IV” in the West, on May 14, 1960. It carried a super-secret 7-ton payload including, it was rumored, a life-size “dummy cosmonaut.” The Reds were so proud that they put their newest satellite on a postage stamp. But five days later, when its re-entry rockets were fired, something apparently exploded. Instead of a triumphant return to earth, Sputnik IV (and the dummy) drifted into space. This time there was no fanfare. The Russians said that they’d never planned to bring it back anyway.
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