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Not to get too “um actually” on this but Sputnik 1 predates Explorer 1
Does any part of this suggest otherwise?
Yes, the order of the guys.
china really went 60% of the way to naming their satellite Touhou Koumakyou
Ah the second first touhou game.
Canada was the 4th country with a satellite, and the 3rd country to fully construct its own satellite. It called that satellite Alouette 1, followed by Alouette 2, then ISIS 1 and 2 (International Satellites for Ionospheric Studies, not the other one).
The list of launches is pretty funny.
- Sputnik 1 (success); USSR
- Sputnik 2 (success); USSR
Then an absolutely frantic series of US attempts
- Vanguard 1A (failure); USA
- Explorer 1 (success); USA
- Vanguard 1B (failure); USA
- Explorer 2 (failure); USA
- Vanguard 1C (success); USA
- Explorer 3 (success); USA
- Vanguard 2A (failure); USA
Then another Sputnik
- Sputnik 3 (success); USSR
Then more frantic attempts by the USA
- Vanguard 2B (failure); USA
- Vanguard 2C (failure); USA
- Explorer 4 (success); USA
- Pioneer 0 (failure); USA
PioneerExplorer 5 (failure); USA- Vanguard 2D (failure); USA
- Pioneer 1 (partial success); USA
- Beacon 1 (failure); USA
- Pioneer 2 (failure); USA
Then 1959 started with Luna 1, a partially successful launch from the USSR.
I read in another place that Japan was the fourth to launch a satellite in February of 1970, it looks like that other article means ‘launched using their own rocktet’, and Canada launched 8 years earlier than Japan using NASA rocket
Mild confusing, Pioneer 5 launched before Pioneer 1? Whose bright idea was that?
Oops, I messed up. That should have been Explorer 5.
AN INDOMITABLE GAULISH NAME FOR AN INDOMITABLE GAULISH SATELLITE!
“Asterix” being some spin on the latin word for “star”, aster.
Well, there’s certainly a double entendre in chosing it as the name of a satellite, but it definitely comes from the name of tgat comic book character. Which itself is a play on asterisque (this symbol: *), which, of course, comes in turn from aster as you said.
His compagnon Obélix has a name which works on two levels: It can be seen as a play on obelisk (he is himself a sculptor of menhirs, which are vaguely similar to obelisks), but “obèle” is also the French word for the dagger symbol (†), which is an alternative to the asterisk.
Oh, I never knew about that second reference for Obélix!
I should really read them again, I probably missed 80% of the jokes as a kid.
Netflix has a new animated Asterix series which is really good, modernized (as far as the puns are concerned – e.g. one of the Romans is named “Fastandfurius”) but still very much in the spirit of the original. The live-action series is nowhere near as good.
Thank you for sharing this, a great little TIL to go with my morning coffee!
You claiming that I’m not a star? tok tok tok
Oublie-ix that line of thought!
Which was taken from Greek.
The “star” comes from the fact that his name is a pun on asterisk. *
Sputnik is a fun word in Russian. It comes from the prefix s- (with), the suffix -nik (one who), and the root -put- (path). A sputnik, then, is someone or something who travels a path with you, and it is also a model of train (because it travels with the tracks) and a word for spouse (because they travel your life’s path with you).
i find that incredibly fascinating and also so emotional like pure poetry in just one word, neat
In (some parts of) Germany a Sputnik is a sausage with a slice of cheese in it, wrapped in bacon, pierced by a toothpick and baked in the oven.
Was looking for a picture of one and found none. So now I’m contemplating if I’m going insane.
Is it a specific sausage or any sausage because no reason I’m not hungry
Username checks out?
Those parts might be centred around your family kitchen, much like the northern lights
Probably, was in a small village in the Swabian Alps
May I see it?
The Russians call Germans “nemtsy” or “the mute ones” because allegedly the Germans were the first ethnic group the Russians encountered who didn’t speak their language and so they assumed they couldn’t speak at all. The sausage sounds delicious, though, so maybe they just weren’t speaking because they were eating cheese-stuffed bacon-wrapped sausages.
That anecdote doesn’t make any sense though. Like who are “the Russians” and why didn’t they have prior knowledge of other ethnic groups before? And “the Germans” is a very recent group of people that isn’t ethnic at all.
To expand a bit, it comes from a Proto-Slavic word which was used for foreigners in general, but mostly to refer to Germans. It’s also why most (all?) Slavic languages have basically the same word for German(s)/Germany, similar-sounding to the modern Russian one.
so, “pathfinder”?
More like companion.
If the “pa” part of “companion” comes from path it’s basically exactly the same: “s” and “co” are both “with” and “nik” and “ion” are similar noun endings.
More like baby mama
More like YO mama!
Ohh got em
I might translate it that way in some contexts, but if you told me Lewis and Clark were “sputniks” I’d assume you meant they got married in secret, rather than that they were explorers.
Especially now that I found out it involves a bacon cheese sausage somehow
It’s strange they called it a ‘companion’ of any sort since it was the sole first satellite in space
As in, a companion to the planet.
Moons are satellites.
Satellite: from Latin satellitem (nominative satelles) “an attendant” upon a distinguished person; “a body-guard, a courtier; an assistant”
Fascinating, so it means 🇨🇿 spoluputovník or 🇩🇪 Mitwanderer
Ils sont fous, ces Française.
Ils? Peut-être “nous”?
Je suis anglais. But also I was trying to keep the catchphrase intact.
Named ours after a bird and funny kid’s song.
Was that live action movie any good or just an acid trip?
The new animated series on Netflix is great, very much in the spirit of the original comics. I didn’t like the live action thing at all and couldn’t get very far into it.
Yes.
