Sputnik was a about the size of large beach ball. So the question I have is how was it possible for Sputnik to be visible with binoculars 583 miles away? Sputnik burned up on 4 January 1958 while reentering Earth's atmosphere, after three months, 1440 completed orbits of the Earth, and a distance travelled of about 70 million km (43 million mi). Though Sputnik 1 was small, it was quite reflective and therefore visible from Earth through a pair of binoculars (and perhaps even with the naked eye, if you had good vision and knew exactly where to look).Oct 4, 2020 Space.com › 38331-sputnik-sat... Sputnik 1! 7 Fun Facts About Humanity's First Satellite | Space