Murano glass Sputnik chandelier, Italian, circa 1960. Measures: Height 39, width 30. The iconic Sputnik design was inspired by the first satellite to orbit the earth in 1957. This Soviet Union satellite was named “Sputnik” and was the size of a beach ball, with 4 long antennae emulating from a center sphere. It is believed that the Sputnik was part of the push to create the United States NASA space program in 1958. This Mid-Century Modern chandelier became a recognizable part of the design periods known as the “Atomic Age” from circa 1940-1960, when concerns of nuclear war dominated the West, and the “Space Age” period from 1958 to the early 1970s, culminating in the July 1969 moon landing.