A thin plume of orange rising into the Soviet sky on October 4, 1957, carried aloft humankind's first artificial satellite. A 22-inch, 184-pound, beeping sphere, Sputnik ("Fellow Traveler") marked the beginning of a new chapter in...

Sputnik Launched October 4, 1957 Decommissioned March 25, 1961 At the height of the Cold War the Soviet Union initiated a space program named Sputnik, which made such historic achievements as putting the first satellite in Earth’s orbit; it...

Sputnik is the name given to a series of scientific research satellites launched by the Soviet Union during the period from 1957 to 1961. The satellites ranged in size and capability from the 83.6-kilogram (184.3-pound) Sputnik 1, which served only as...

Any of a series of Earth-orbiting spacecraft whose launching by the Soviet Union inaugurated the space age. Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite (October 1957), remained in orbit until early 1958, when it reentered Earth’s...

The Sputnik program was a series of robotic spacecraft missions launched by the Soviet Union. The first of these, Sputnik 1, launched the first man-made object to orbit the Earth. That launch took place on October 4, 1957 as part of the International...