Talk:Sputnik 1

Apoapsis altitude: infobox says 939 km, orbit narrative says 950 km

The article gives two different values for Sputnik 1's apoapsis (highest orbital point), and they don't agree.

Infobox: "orbit_apoapsis = 939 km"

Narrative section (describing the achieved orbit): "This resulted in an initial elliptical orbit of 223 km by 950 km."

The difference is 11 km — not a conversion rounding artifact (both are in km), and not a change over time since the narrative is describing the initial orbit, the same orbit the infobox is characterizing. At the precision these figures are stated (three or four significant figures), 939 and 950 are materially different.

Both figures appear in secondary-source accounts of Sputnik's orbital parameters, and the discrepancy likely reflects different primary-source measurements or reporting conventions. Whichever figure the article intends to use, the two sections should agree with each other and cite a common source. Rome (talk) 17:49, 5 May 2026 (UTC)