By: Jason Smith Early on the morning of October 10, 1957, atop the roof of Engleman Hall at the New Haven State Teachers College, three star-gazers of the local branch of the Smithsonian Institute’s Astrophysical Laboratory program spotted an object moving at eighteen thousand miles per hour. “I got it,” cried New Havener James Plato, who saw something that looked like a faint star moving through the clear night. Moments later, NHSTC earth science Professor Robert Brown, accompanied by his son, caught a glimpse for himself. It was the first confirmed sighting of the Soviet satellite Sputnik in the continental United States. The Cold War space race had begun. Months later, NHSTC president Hilton C. Buley used the accomplishment to advocate for more STEM funding for colleges such as his own, which would train the next generation of teachers and their students. Launched on October 4, 1957, Sputnik was the first human-made satellite to orbit the Earth, a key moment in the Cold War...