Sputniks

Cultural  

1. A series of Soviet satellites launched in 1957 and in following years. These were the first artificial satellites.

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The appearance of Sputnik stimulated a great deal of effort in the education of scientists and engineers in the United States. This period is now referred to as the post-Sputnik boom.

Example Sentences

One show used a helicopter, another a four-engine bomber, and a third shot Sputniks into the flies.

From Time Magazine Archive

If any of the Sputniks carried tape recorders, they apparently did not work.

From Time Magazine Archive

With two massive Sputniks to compete with, the U.S. pinned its hopes for outdoing the Russians on the superiority of Van Allen's instruments.

From Time Magazine Archive

Here was Nikita Khrushchev, 64, racing through the statistics of his triumphs�Lunik, Sputniks, "mass-produced" ICBMs, new targets for industry, farming and education.

From Time Magazine Archive

But fashions change, old loves return, and now that Sputniks clutter up the sky with new and unfamiliar moons, the readers of science-fiction are willing to wait for tomorrow to read tomorrow's headlines.

From The Door Through Space by Bradley, Marion Zimmer