Fifty-five years ago today — on October 4, 1957 — the Soviet space program launched the Earth’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik (pronounced spoot-nik).
Sputnik was a metal sphere “about the size of a beach ball” that weighed 184 pounds and had four external radio antennas. After orbiting for three weeks, its batteries died (and transmissions ceased), so it continued orbiting silently until January 4, 1958, when it fell back into the Earth’s atmosphere and burned up.
The satellite’s unexpected success marked the start of the Space Race between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. It also “ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments,” according to NASA.
But NASA forgot to mention one more thing the Soviet satellite ushered in: the brand new baby name “Sputnik,” which was bestowed upon a handful of U.S. children starting in late 1957:
- Sputnik Eisenhower Watkins, born on October 31, 1957, in Ramsey, Minnesota.
- Gary Sputnik Clack, born on January 17, 1958, in Orange, Texas.
- Polly Sputnik Johnson, born in 1959 in Wilson, North Carolina.
- Isaac Sputnik Ornelas, born in 1991 in Riverside, California.
“Sputnik Eisenhower” (middle name for then-president Dwight D. Eisenhower) is definitely the most memorable of the bunch. According to an article in Jet, Sputnik Eisenhower Watkins had three older siblings with the non-satellite names Pauline, Merium and Sam.
Sputnik, Russia’s word for “satellite,” literally means “traveling companion” or “fellow traveler.” The word was coined by combining the Russian word putnik (“traveler”) with the prefix s- (“together”).
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