Did speeding American manhole cover beat Sputnik into space? Top boffin speaks to El Reg

How a nuke blast lid may have beaten Soviets by months

As any space enthusiast knows, beachball-sized Sputnik was the first manmade object to orbit the Earth after it was launched by the Soviets in October 1957. But it's possible the US managed to put an object into space a few months before that."