The third silver coin in the Milky Way collectible series is dedicated to the vehicle that sent mankind into the space age - a satellite named Sputnik 1.

However, this incredible milestone was achieved thanks to not one, but two wars. World War II brought not only hardship to humanity, but also extraordinary technological advances. One of the latest inventions designed to destroy was the rocket. You will recall the dreaded Soviet Katyusha or the legendary German V-2 missiles. After the war, these technologies were further developed and given another task in addition to destruction - to transport their creators into space. Thus was born the race between the two superpowers - the USSR and the USA - and their two ideologies to see who could conquer space first. This "space race" became one of the key events of the Cold War, and the Soviet Union claimed its first victory on 4 October 1957. The brilliant engineer Sergei Korolyov then sent the first man-made satellite into Earth orbit. The spherical satellite with four antennas, which was carried into space by an R-7 rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, was named Sputnik, meaning "fellow traveller". The world stood still - regardless of nationality or beliefs, people hoped to catch a glimpse, if only for a brief moment, of the triumph of human ingenuity. Experts and radio amateurs from around the world listened to Sputnik's signal and helped Soviet scientists gather information about its trajectory. Humanity had its first space traveller, but the race to conquer space was just beginning...

The reverse side of the coin was dedicated by the medal maker Asamat Baltaev, DiS., to the depiction of the satellite in vivid colours, which were achieved using colouring technology. No photographs or computer graphics were used as a template - the author of the coin created an original watercolour painting. The embossed relief shows stylized space objects - stars, planets and other satellites. The composition is closed by the inscription SPUTNIK I. The obverse side of the coin humorously presents crop circles and a flying saucer, which illuminates the portrait of Elizabeth II. Together with the Queen's name, the year of issue 2022 and the nominal value of 1 DOLLAR (NZD), this is a necessary attribute of the issuer of the coin - the Pacific island of Niue, which provides the Czech Mint with a foreign licence to mint its own commemorative coins.

The coin dedicated to the Sputnik satellite can be stored in a collector's album full of interesting facts about our home galaxy and the conquerors of space.