Sputnik 1 was Earth's first artificial satellite, launched into orbit on October 4, 1957 via simple liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen rockets. The name "Sputnik", from Earth's Russian language, is generally translated as "fellow traveller". (TOS novel: Mission to Horatius)

The Vulcans sent a ship to Earth to investigate this historic landmark. (ENT episode: "Carbon Creek")

The launch of Sputnik was a major event in the Cold War period in the second half of the 20th century, since any nation that possesssed rockets which could launch payloads into orbit could drop bombs anywhere on the planet. (TOS novel: The Entropy Effect)

External linkEdit

• Sputnik article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
• Sputnik 1 article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.