Plow truck hitting a manhole cover. | Stanley "Dirt Monkey" Genadek

99K views · 828 reactions | The US may have accidentally sent a manhole cover into space months before the launch of Sputnik. | The History Archives | Facebook

6.6K views · 42 reactions | "I'm here today to rebrand the manhole cover," announces NY1's Pat Kiernan. "It's not a cover; it's an entrance! It's an entrance to the sewer or an entrance to water facilities or ... an entrance into a world of city history." Allow Roger Clark to explain. | Spectrum News NY1 | Facebook

In 1957, scientists might’ve accidentally made space history with a manhole cover. During a nuclear test in Nevada, a steel cap sealed over a deep shaft was blasted into the sky at an estimated 125,000 mph. That’s five times the speed needed to leave Earth! Only one blurry frame on a high-speed camera caught it before it vanished. Some say it burned up in the atmosphere, others think it might’ve become humanity’s first object in space even before Sputnik. Either way, it's one wild Cold War myste