This is one of several small models, or maquettes, preliminary to the full-size version of the sculpture, which measures five feet in height. Constructed from iron and composition, this maquette is unique contrasting to the others which are cast in bronze. The title comes from a song by the German poet and playwright Berthold Brecht, but the references to the Soviet Sputnik space programme are also evident in its structure. The Russians’ launched the first man-made object into Earth’s orbit on 4 October 1957 as part of the Cold War Space Race with the United States of America. ‘Sputnik 1’ was fifty-eight centimetres in diameter - roughly the same size as this maquette.