I was flipping through the fantastic Mental Floss blog this morning, and I found a link to a pretty interesting article over on Wired about the scientists who were responsible for the development of Sputnik, which was launched 50 years ago Thursday.
Apparently it wasn't a very meticulously planned scientific instrument. Rather, the Soviets designed an intercontinental ballistic missile with the goal of being able to hit the US with a hydrogen bomb, and just happened to notice that the result was a rocket with enough thrust to put something into orbit. Some dude pointed this out, and said "Hey, we should use this to launch something into space".
They then proceeded to cobble together a satellite in three months, and blasted it off into orbit. Three months! I prefer not to itemize what I have achieved in the last three months, but it falls somewhat short of putting the world's first artificial satellite in orbit.
One more interesting tidbit: Sputnik had no scientific instruments on board at all. Just 2 radio transmitters and four antennae. All it did was beep.
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Sputnik 2 was put together in a mere 4 weeks and launched on November 3, 1957, carrying the first animal into space, a dog named Laika. Following the launch the Soviets proudly sent word of their achievement, including audio of Laika barking. A senior soviet scientist revealed a few years ago that Laika actually died shortly after takeoff due to stress and overheating.
No matter what you may or may not have accomplished in the last few months, at least you have not killed any dogs.
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