The plan for Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 was initiated and presented by Korolev, and was approved in January 1957. At that time, it was not clear that the Soviets' main satellite plan (which would eventually become Sputnik 3) would be able to get to space because of the ongoing issues with the R-7 ICBM, which would be needed to launch a satellite of that size. "Korolev proposed substituting two 'simple satellites' for the IGY satellite". The choice to launch these two instead of waiting for the more advanced Sputnik 3 to be finished was largely motivated by the desire to launch a satellite to orbit before the US.