The launch was to take place at the newly named Baikonur Cosmodrome, a missile launch facility in southern Kazakhstan. Sputnik 1 was mounted on a modified R-7 rocket and, at 10:28 pm Moscow time, the launch took place. For a very nervous 95 minutes, personnel at the launch site waited. Then, their radio receivers finally picked up the distinctive “beep, beep, beep” of Sputnik 1 as it passed over Baikonur having completed its first orbit. The first human-made satellite was successfully orbiting the Earth.
