The Soviet government issued a secret decree that authorised the development of 'Object D' satellite program in 1956, which led to the program to launch Sputnik 3. Ironically Sputnik 1 (Russian: "Спу́тник-1" English: "Elimentry Satellite-1", or literally "fellow traveler") was only a simplified spin-off of the Object D program. It was the Soviets's first satellite. Sputnik was to ignite the American issues of the missile gap, the Sputnik crisis and the space race. The successfully launch of anything from a still backward USSR was in stark contrast to the American Flopnik incident.