It's been 50 years since the world's first satellite, Sputnik, was launched, marking the dawn of the space age and sparking the race to land a man on the moon.

Russia is marking the historic event with ceremonies at its cosmonaut training centre, Star City, outside Moscow.

Sputnik, launched Oct. 4, 1957, was essentially an 83-kilogram metal ball with spiked antennas that beeped as it circled the Earth for 22 days.

The success of Soviet engineers in launching Sputnik stunned the world.

It was followed four years later by another historic achievement — the launch of Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space.

Sputnik galvanized the United States to pour money into space research and technology with the goal of landing a man on the moon — an event that occurred in 1969.

Russian military officials also held a small ceremony to lay flowers at the grave of the father of the Soviet space program, Sergei Korolyov, who was buried with honours at the foot of the Kremlin wall.

Engineers were gathering at the Academy of Sciences later in the day for more commemorations.

"Of course speaking just for us specialists (the launch) sparked an unexpected furor around the world. No one expected this, even including our engineers," said Viktor Frusmon, a co-worker of Korolyov's, in televised comments Thursday.