By James Heinz
Not all the wrecks at the bottom Lake Michigan are ships. Michigan state underwater archeologist Wayne Lusardi has compiled a list of over 1,100 aircraft that have fallen into the Great Lake, starting with balloonists who went missing in the 1870s. In a previous article, I wrote about Northwest Airlines flight 2501 which went missing over Lake Michigan in 1950 and has never been found.
On September 5, 1962, at 5:30 am two Manitowoc Police officers on routine patrol noticed a circular metal object lying in the street in front of what would become the Rahr-West Art Museum at 610 North 8th Street in Manitowoc. Finding the object there again at 7 am, they discovered that it was imbedded in the asphalt and too hot to touch.
Later that day the two officers found that the object was still there. No one in Manitowoc could identify it. With remarkable informality, they gave it to a traveling salesman who was on his way to Milwaukee and told him to deliver it to the Milwaukee Journal newspaper for identification.
The Milwaukee Astronomical Society (MAS) already knew what the object was. It was part of a Russian spacecraft.
On May 15, 1960, Russia launched what they called Korabl-Sputnik I, known in the west as Sputnik IV. The City of Manitowoc website describes it: “It was the first Sputnik with a pressurized cabin and life support equipment – a test flight for the planned manned program. The ship carried a mannequin (nick-named Ivan Ivanovich) wearing a fully functional spacesuit. The Russians intended to recover the ship.”
Wikipedia tells us: “After four days of flight, the retro rocket was fired and the descent module was separated from its equipment module, but because the spacecraft was not in the correct flight attitude when its retro fired, the descent module did not reenter the atmosphere as planned.”
The MAS web site tells us that at 4:39 a.m. on September 5, 1962, MAS observers saw the descent module re-enter the atmosphere. They reported seeing a glowing object separate into 24 separate glowing objects.
One of those 24 glowing objects turned out to be the object the Manitowoc Police found on 8th Street.
This was confirmed by scientific testing that proved that the object had been exposed to cosmic rays and charged particles, which could only have happened in outer space. Just what part of the spacecraft it was has never been determined. The object was made of steel, was about 8 inches in diameter, and weighed about 20 pounds. Lusardi told me that the descent stage weighed about 3,200 pounds. So where are the other 23 pieces and the remaining 3,180 pounds?
Much of it that did not disintegrate on reentry may be at the bottom of Lake Michigan.
Lusardi said that the descent module was moving in a southeasterly direction as it passed over Manitowoc. The Manitowoc object was the largest part of the spacecraft recovered. No spacecraft parts were recovered on the other side of the lake in Michigan. Therefore, there is still a ton and a half of Russian spacecraft unaccounted for and some of it may be lying on the bottom of the Lake somewhere southeast of Manitowoc.
It is the ultimate wreck dive.
Lusardi concedes that while he has no idea what the satellite would look like, he believes that it would be “highly fragmented and distributed” and that recovery and identification would be “highly challenging.” He is also concerned that divers may bring up shipwreck artifacts that are protected by State and Federal laws in the mistaken belief that they are spacecraft parts. Lusardi cautions that divers hoping to take the satellite home and put it on their mantelpiece should remember one thing:
Sputnik IV still belongs to Russia.
The Manitowoc fragment was eventually returned to Russia in “a quiet ceremony”. Several models of the object were made, and one was given to the Milwaukee Astronomical Society, which has it on display at its New Berlin, Wis., headquarters, where I saw it and was inspired to write this story.
Sputnik IV did lead to discussions at the United Nations about who would be liable for damage and injuries caused by falling spacecraft debris, which lead to an international treaty establishing that the nation that launched the spacecraft is responsible.
And yes, one person has been struck by space debris. In 1997 a woman walking in a park in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was struck in the shoulder by a piece of an American satellite. She was not injured.
Both Lusardi and I agree that in addition to inspiring an international treaty, Sputnik IV was responsible for one other truly unique cultural event.
Sputnik Fest
Every year Manitowoc celebrates the time when a piece of the Cold War fell out of the sky onto north 8th street with Sputnik Fest, which occurs on north 8th street at the site where the satellite fragment was found. The site is marked by a brass ring in the pavement at the exact spot and a memorial plaque. Check out the link at: https://www.manitowoc.org/1109/Sputnikfest
It is an event that Lusardi and I agree is “gloriously weird”, consisting as it does of people dressed up as characters from science fiction movies, and other people wearing tin foil hats and leading around dogs dressed as their owners’ favorite satellite. This year it will occur on September 7, 2024.
Speaking of the bottom of Lake Michigan, Lusardi says “there are lots of things out there.” A Cold War Russian satellite is one of them.
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James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.
PHOTOS
Movie poster courtesy of Wikipedia
Sputnik Diagram courtesy of Drew LePage
Spot on 8th Street where it landed courtesy of Wikipedia
Brass marker on 8th Street courtesy of Wikipedia
Replica from Milwaukee Astronomical Society Jim Heinz photo
Fun times at Sputnik Fest courtesy of Sputnik Fest https://www.manitowoc.org/1109/Sputnikfest
