sentences:  As part of the 1957–58 International Geophysical Year, both the U.S. and the Soviet Union proposed to launch a scientific satellite.Although von Braun had proposed in 1954 that the OML could place a satellite in Earth orbit, the Naval Research Laboratory, using its Vanguard rocket, was given this assignment.On 4 October 1957, the USSR orbited "Sputnik I", the first Earth satellite.