\<COLOUR 1> LAUNCH SITE: \<COLOUR 0> Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Central Asia; Plesetsk Cosmodrome, northern Russia
\<COLOUR 1> COUNTRY: \<COLOUR 0> USSR
\<COLOUR 1> COMMENTS: \<COLOUR 0> Also called the SL-1; derived from the ICBM SS-6, or 'Sapwood'; launches the first ever satellite, Sputnik 1, in October 1957; it sets the pattern for the series of A launch vehicles by having four liquid-propellant strap-on boosters; A-1/SL-3 has an extra kerosene/liquid oxygen stage, and is used to launch the early Luna probes, satellites and Vostok manned spacecraft (see Vostok); A-2/SL-4 is the still-current Soyuz (see Soyuz); A-2e/SL-6 is the still-current Molniya (see Molniya).