# Purpose of Sputnik's 4 legs

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-sputniks-4-legs/828137>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 21, 2019, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-sputniks-4-legs/828137 "2019-01-21T03:45:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2019, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-sputniks-4-legs/828137/1 "2019-01-21T03:45:55Z")

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Been searching for this on Google with little success: what did Sputnik have those 4 long thin legs for?

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2019, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-sputniks-4-legs/828137/2 "2019-01-21T03:49:30Z")

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They’re antennas, but I don’t know why they’re configured that way. They could be a phased array to produce directional transmissions, but I don’t know if Soviet electronics were up to the dual tasks of producing a phased array, and determining the spacecraft’s orientation to know which direction to beam.

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**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2019, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-sputniks-4-legs/828137/3 "2019-01-21T03:59:19Z")

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It was actually two dipole antennas, transmitting on two frequencies. Basically they didn’t know how to control orientation and thus configured the antennas to have an omnidirectional transmission pattern.

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**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2019, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-sputniks-4-legs/828137/4 "2019-01-21T04:51:35Z")

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Thanks! SDMB to the rescue