Sputnik 1

Sputnik (Спутник, Russian for "satellite") is a name for multiple spacecrafts launched under the Soviet space program. "Sputnik 1", "Sputnik 2" and "Sputnik 3" were the official Soviet names of those objects, and the remaining designations in the series ("Sputnik 4" and so on) were not official names but names applied in the West to objects whose original Soviet names may not have been known at the time.

Spacecraft officially named Sputnik

Spacecrafts with names containing Sputnik

Being the Russian term for "satellite", the word Sputnik has appeared in the names of other spacecrafts:

  • Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik, a series of scientific and technology development satellites
  • Istrebitel Sputnikov, "Destroyer of Satellites", a series of antisatellite weapons and targets
  • Tyazhely Sputnik, "Heavy Satellite", a failed Venus probe
  • Upravlyaemy Sputnik, "Controllable Satellite", a series of ocean surveillance and missile detection satellites US-A, nuclear-powered ocean radar surveillance satellites US-K, molniya orbit missile detection satellites US-KS, geosynchronous orbit missile detection satellites US-KMO, Modernised geosynchronous orbit missile detection satellites US-P, electronic ocean surveillance satellites US-PM, modernised electronic ocean surveillance satellites

Spacecrafts designated "Sputnik" in the West

These objects are listed with their official Soviet names:

Spacecrafts named after Sputnik 1

See also

Notes