Galileo launched a satellite holy cow he must have used a super huge catapult or something?

Question

I mean how else would Galileo Galilei get such a wonderous marvel into space way back in the mid 1500's?, the only way i could think of is maybe a catapult built on the highest mountain but even then i dought it.

Answer 1

You're having fun with us. Ok, how WOULD Galileo have gotten something into space? It was certainly known then that hot air rises, so, I would say he put a device in a canoe, tied numerous hot air balloons on it, and let it float up and up until it drifted beyond the atmosphere. : ) (I plan to do that myself.)

Answer 2

I think you mixed up some news:
A Soyuz rocket launched the first satellite of Galileo, a European satellite navigation system, early Wednesday. The Soyuz-FG rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:19 am EST (0519 GMT) Wednesday and placed the GIOVE-A satellite into a circular medium Earth orbit; the satellite separated from the Fregat upper stage three hours and 42 minutes after liftoff. GIOVE-A (Galileo In Orbit Validation Element A) is the first test satellite for the planned 30-satellite navigation system. The satellite, built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. in the UK, is intended to test key technologies planned for the operational system and put into use frequencies reserved for the system before a 2006 International Telecommunication Union deadline. A second test satellite, GIOVE-B, is scheduled for launch in the spring of 2006.

Answer 3

Galileo did not launch any satellites. The first artificial satellite was Sputnik, launched by Russia in 1957.

Maybe you're getting confused with the Galileo space probe, which was spaceship recently sent to Jupiter. That was not built by Galileo, only named after him.

Answer 4

What are you talking about?