1. plural of sputnik; artificial satellites, especially early Soviet space satellites
Usage: historical; often capitalized when referring to specific Soviet satellites

Examples

• The launch of the first Sputniks marked the beginning of the Space Age.
• Soviet sputniks orbited Earth throughout the late 1950s and 1960s.
• Scientists tracked the radio signals from the early sputniks.
• The success of the sputniks surprised many Western observers.
• Multiple sputniks were launched as part of the Soviet space program.
• The sputniks demonstrated that artificial satellites could orbit Earth successfully.