"The Brick Moon" is a novella by American writer Edward Everett Hale, published serially in the magazine The Atlantic Monthly in 1869.

It is a work of speculative fiction containing the first known fictional description of an artificial satellite (though in 1728 a publication by Isaac Newton included a description of Newton's cannonball, a hypothetical artificial object which is projected from a mountain, as a thought experiment to explain why natural satellites move as they do).

It describes the construction and launch into orbit of a sphere, 200 feet in diameter, built of bricks.

The author even surmised correctly the idea of needing four satellites visible above the horizon for navigation, as for modern GPS.

[2][3] A fourth part or sequel, entitled "Life on the Brick Moon", was also published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1870.