Sputnik moment
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈspʊtnɪk ˈməʊmənt/
ipa: /ˈspʌtnɪk ˈməʊmənt/
ipa: /ˈspʊtnɪk ˈmoʊmənt/
ipa: /ˈspʌtnɪk ˈmoʊmənt/
Forms: form: Sputnik moments
Etymology: A reference to the Soviet Union’s launch of the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite Sputnik 1 in 1957 which caught the US unprepared. The event ignited the Space Race during the Cold War, and led to the US successfully launching Explorer 1 into space in 1958.
Senses: examples: text: Immediately after September 11, 2001, Americans found themselves again facing a Sputnik moment. They realized that they were caught flat-footed, unprepared to confront Al Qaeda terrorists.
ref: 2004 June 22, Rush Holt, Suggested Remarks for Rep. Rush Holt: Is American Security Being Lost in Translation?, National Language Conference, U.S. Department of Defence, archived from the original on 27 Dec 2008, page 4:
text: Americans are having another Sputnik moment: one of those periodic alarms about some foreign technological and economic menace. It was the Soviets in the 1950s and early 1960s, the Germans and the Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s, and now it's the Chinese and the Indians
ref: 2005 May 25, Robert J. Samuelson, “Sputnik Scare, Updated”, in Washington Post:
text: Half a century ago, when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik, we had no idea how we would beat them to the moon. The science wasn't even there yet. NASA didn't exist. But after investing in better research and education, we didn't just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs. This is our generation's Sputnik moment. Two years ago, I said that we needed to reach a level of research and development we haven't seen since the height of the Space Race. And in a few weeks, I will be sending a budget to Congress that helps us meet that goal.
ref: 2011 January 5, Barack Obama; Jon Favreau, speechwriter, “Remarks by the President in State of Union Address”, in White House Office of the Press Secretary, WhiteHouse.gov, archived from the original on 06 May 2016:
text: "It's a national call, a Sputnik moment," said Mehran Sahami, associate chairman for computer science education at Stanford, referring to the Soviet satellite launching in 1957 that pushed the United States into the space race.
ref: 2011 June 11, Claire Cain Miller, “Computer studies made cool, on film and now on campus”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 11 Jun 2011:
text: Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen may have said it best. "DeepSeek-R1 is AI's Sputnik moment," he posted to X on Sunday, referring to the satellite which kicked off the space race.
ref: 2025 January 28, Lily Jamali, “China's DeepSeek AI shakes industry and dents America's swagger”, in BBC News Online, archived from the original on 28 Jan 2025:
synonyms: iPhone moment
coordinate_terms: wake-up call
glosses: The moment when a country or a society realizes that it needs to catch up with apparent technological and scientific developments made by some other country or countries by increasing its investment into education, innovative research and development, etc.
wikipedia: Explorer 1
National Air and Space Museum
Sputnik 1