How many times was the first Sputnik launched?

Question by Kevin S: How many times was Sputnik launched?

I saw on wikipedia that there were more then that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik
How many different Sputniks were there?

Answers and Views:

Answer by missourim43
Once

http://history.nasa.gov/index.html

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Geoff G says

I remember at least three Sputniks from the late '50s. Sputnik I and Sputnik II were both too faint to be visible, but Sputnik III was quite bright and widely observed, and I have a photograph I made of it back then passing through Hercules.

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tham153 says

I don't know where the person who translated Sputnik as little brother got his Russian, but the Russian for brother is BRAT, which doesn't look much like Sputnik. In fact PUT means travel, S (c in cyrillic alphabet) is the Russian prefix for with, and nik means one who does, thus Sputnik, one who travels with (earth).
There were three sputniks, the first two in 1957, and the third in 1958. Wikipedia has a full article on them.

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aviophage says

"Sputnik" means "little brother" in Russian, and the name was given to a series of orbital devices. There were a total of 41 Sputnik satellites launched in the 1950s through the 1970s.

Try an internet search on "sputnik" for lots of information.

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Jason T says

Sputnik was the name given to the first artificial satellite launched by the USSR in October 1957. It was launched once and once only.

Following satellites were designated Sputnik 2, 3 etc, each of which was again launched only once. They were non-recoverable satellites.

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Bobbyp416 says

One – time- only deal…
That particular launch created quite a frenzy back here in the States, though.
That event started our 'Space Race' with the (then) Soviet Union.

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