What type of Satellite was sputnik?

A2A The Russians had several programs running concurrently in 1957, prior to the launch of PS, which was the Soviet designation for the satellite they affectionately called "prosteishy sputnik," or "simplest satellite". read more

Sputnik 1 (/ˈspʌtnɪk/; Russian: спутник-1 [ˈsputnʲɪk] "Satellite-1", or пс-1 ["PS-1", i.e., Russian: простейший спутник-1, Prosteyshiy Sputnik-1, "Elementary Satellite 1"])[5] was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957. read more

History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (58 cm.or 22.8 inches in diameter), weighed only 83.6 kg. or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. read more