the russians launched the world is first artificial satellite sputnik i on octorber 4 1957next sputnik 2 carrying a dog called laika went up into space on november 3 the americans launched explorer i on january 31 1958 the americans won the race yo land on the
moon more than ten years later with apollo 11 on july 20 1969 this is one small step for a man one giant leap for mankind said astronaut neil armstrong the first person to walk on the moonspace exploration has continued since then and has brought new discoveries in many different areas of science