The Night That Sputnik Soared Over Lowell

By Rocky Provencher

There was a time that Lowell was a well-known industrial center. It was built from farm land, a city planned with forethought, with mills, housing for the workers, roads, churches, and railroads. Each mill was a manufacturing marvel, a beacon of planning and industry. The canals, the mills, the railroad infrastructure, the housing, all built to spin, weave, and dye cotton and wool, as well as for housing the workers. World famous dignitaries and statesmen would visit and exclaim its wonders! The buildings, the machines, the workers, the good life and provenance of modern industry. They mentioned the good health and beauty of the industrious spinners and weavers, and examined their accommodations and their writings. What a glorious city! What a thorough plan!

The dignitaries and statesmen were not around when the dirt and the grime settled in and around the machines, nor when the cotton dust became thick, coating the ceilings and walls. Grease and oil stained the floorboards. They didn’t hear the coughing, nor see the missing fingers, the tired faces the slumped shoulders. But still the mills expanded and the town extended and the population increased. And the profits! Over time, less dignitaries and statesmen came to visit. My mother’s family migrated from the mills of Scotland, Ireland and England. My father’s family left the woods of Canada. All came looking for opportunity and a different life, which they found here.

This was Lowell. This is Lowell. This is the place of my birth, and in this city was my home.

My father was the youngest of 7 and was taken out of school to work with his father as a peddler of fruits and vegetables. They had a horse and cart and went clopping down the streets selling their wares. My father liked to read, and was curious about many things. He had a sharp mind and was good with his hands. Science held his interest, and he read all he could about all aspects of science: Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy, Geology. He became a machinist. And as I grew, I saw him tinkering constantly with new projects and new ideas! I remember a time when I was 8 or 9, he worked on making small radios, at first with crystals and magnets, then batteries and later, tubes and transistors. Always finding ways to improve them. He would occasionally make me a small radio and give me an earplug, and show me how to change frequencies using a wire touching a crystal, or a magnet moving inside a coil of wire. I was fascinated at the far-away stations I could find. AM stations with music and news. Also short wave broadcasts of beeping signals.

We also listened to the Voice of America broadcasts, as well as the English language version of Russian propaganda from beyond the Iron Curtain. After all, this was the period of time in our nation known as the Cold War.

The Cold War. Just the sound of it was enough to send a chill down one’s spine. In

school, we would practice sliding under our desks at a command from our teacher. The possibility of a preemptive strike with atomic bombs by Communist Russia was a threat that hung over the heads of our nation. Every Friday evening at exactly 6 PM, all the air raid sirens in the city would blare a warning for a full 10 seconds. A test of our air raid systems in case of an attack. We were in competition with the Russians to build a bigger and better atomic bomb, a faster plane, a stronger defense system.

But then we moved to a new aspect of the Cold War. Thoughts were now focused on Outer Space! If only one could launch a satellite to circle the earth and peer down from space as it passes over each country. This satellite could carry cameras, and if it could be made big enough, it could carry weapons. Destruction which could rain down and raise havoc on the nations below! No need to dispatch airplanes which now take hours to reach their targets. The satellites could accomplish that task in minutes. A warship circling the earth! There would be no warning! The times were as dark and evil as the men who plotted and planned.

My father was worried, for he thought that whatever country could launch a satellite to circle the world could control space, and threaten an attack with a very short notice. But he was not part of the decision process. He was just another man, a citizen, an American, a resident of earth. He felt helpless. My mother could care less. She was more concerned about paying the bills and feeding our family. She felt that since there was nothing we could do, it was all a waste of time to worry about it. And I, an 11 year old boy, could only listen and wonder. After all, they were my parents. They knew about the world and it’s doings.

It was early in October of 1957 when we heard the news. the Russians had launched a satellite into orbit over the earth! The satellite was named “Sputnik I” and it continuously circled the earth in approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes! It’s orbit would allow it to pass over all the continents of the earth! Sputnik was broadcasting a signal that could be heard in the short wave spectrum. My father was able to listen to it using one of his radios! He called me over and handed me the earphones. I was in awe and a little afraid of what I would hear. That’s when I heard those beeps that I’ll never forget! I asked him what the beeps meant, but at that time, he didn’t know. We later found out that it was just sounds used to measure speed of the satellite in various frequencies.

He said that Sputnik would pass over the Lowell area in 2 nights, and if the sky is clear, we should be able to see it! It would be the only opportunity we would have to view this! I was excited and knew that he was too! When the day came, we were ready. There was a small porch off the side of the house that offered a clear view of the northeast sky. The night was clear and a little chilly. We were ready and went out to the porch as the time drew near to accustom our eyes to the night sky.

And then, right on time, we saw what looked like a bright star high overhead, moving towards us in the night sky! It moved steadily across the star-filled sky as we stood, looking up at it. Sputnik! We watched, fascinated, as it streaked towards us! Then it moved silently over our heads, and then off and away, out of sight! And as it disappeared, my father said: “This is not good, my son! Not good at all!”

I didn’t know what to make of it, but I knew that I witnessed a momentous, yet ominous event! A foreign representative came to view Lowell, this time from high above!

And I’ll never forget that October night with the Russian Sputnik streaking overhead.

[Thanks to  the wonders of YouTube, here’s the sound of Sputnik beeping away]

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Rocky Provencher was born and raised in Lowell. He attended city schools from the Lowell Day Nursery through Lowell Technological Institute (now UMass Lowell). He spent his career working in Lowell’s mills and was a long time Lowell Folk Festival volunteer.