Tha Russians launched the world s first artifical satellite, Sputnik I, on October 4,1957 Next, Sputnik 2,carrying adog called Laika, went up into space on November 3 Theamesricans launhed explorer ion january31 1985 the american won the race to land on the moonmore than then years later with apollo 11 on july 20 1969 this is one small step for a man one giant leap for man kind said astronaut neil armstrong the first person to walk on the moon space exploration has continued since then and has brought new discoveries in many different areas of scinence