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🛰️ First space satellite 🛰️ Soviet satellites
Sputnik

Sputnik

1 6.4
A series of satellites from the Soviet Union launched into space starting in 1957
  • proper noun
  • /ˈspʌtnɪk/
: Sputnik
  • In 1957, the Soviet Union opened the final frontier by sending the Sputnik satellite into orbit.
  • Sputnik launch
  • Soviet Sputnik
  • Sputnik era

This is a pre Sputnik picture of me with my my telescope.

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Examples

  • Decades ago, in the post-Sputnik era, school reforms addressed teaching and learning in each curriculum strand.

    Academic text (1991)

  • On 4 October 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik I, making the USSR the first nation in space.

    Academic text (1997)

  • So it was started after Sputnik, and all it does is fun, cool stuff, basically.

  • Now who can tell me why Sputnik is so important?

    October Sky (1999)

  • We responded similarly during the early days of Sputnik and the space race.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Back in the days of Sputnik, the economy and the world of work were simpler.

    Academic text (1995)

  • Half a century ago, the launch of Sputnik precipitated major educational reform across all of education.

    Academic text (2008)

  • In October 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into orbit.

    Fly Me to the Moon (2024)

  • In 1957, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics launched Sputnik, inadvertently advancing the development of professional school counseling.

    Academic text (2004)

  • On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

Surface Forms

Sputnik main

Etymology

Sputnik comes from a Russian word that literally means 'fellow traveller' — from s- 'with' and putnik 'traveller' — so the satellite series was named as a set of 'companions' travelling with the Earth.