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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

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Since the unseen fiery deaths of Sputniks I and II, the edge of space near the earth had belonged to three small U.S. satellites, playing like baby bluefish in an ocean.

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

Sputniks and ICBMs aside, Russia is pushing ahead at flank speed in vast areas of science, and of all programs put through for the International Geophysical Year, its is the biggest and most ambitious.

From Time Magazine Archive

Professor Evgeny Fedorov, an official spokesman, said that Sputnik III had been launched with "customary chemical fuels," not with atomic energy, and the launching technique was about the same as with the earlier Sputniks.

From Time Magazine Archive

This was the very thing that had led to such shocks as the launching of the early Sputniks.

From Combat by Mack Reynolds

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