Today in History
What went down and why you should care.
oct 04 Learn More Sputnik Launched
![](https://media1.shmoop.com/images/general/calendar-may-dec/calendar-of-the-day_0271_oct4-sputnik-launched.jpg)
Sputnik was launched on this day in 1957. It was about the size of a basketball and orbited the Earth about every 98 minutes. So what does "Sputnik" mean? It translates to "something that is traveling with a traveler." You know, like a barnacle on a ship. Or like a man-made Soviet satellite traveling with a planet that's also traveling through space.
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