I don't speak Russian, but the article (and Google Translate) claims that Sputnik is just Russian for "satellite". I couldn't find out if the word had that mea

I don't speak Russian, but the article (and Google Translate) claims that Sputnik is just Russian for "satellite". I couldn't find out if the word had that meaning before the Sputnik program (besides the original "companion"), or if this is a case of genericization (think how we now say "to Google something").