In this episode, we continue our investigation into Sputnik 1, its troubled development, and the politics that went into world's first satellite. Topics covered include:

- Khrushchev being so sold on rockets he slashes the Red Army by a third
- Rival engineers who got each other sent to the gulag
- Building a rocket site in the most inhospitable place on Earth
- Two revolutions, one coup d'état, and the least-bloody purge in Soviet history