Sentence:  With this program, we could bring water to the Middle East. We could rebuild some of our sagging esteem in that part of the world; we could insure that in this area at least we would have our <WSD>sputniks</WSD> abreast the Russians', and we could do our own economy a priceless good turn. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Any artificial satellite.