October 4, 1957 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first
man-made objectto orbit the Earth. Sputnik 1 orbited the Earth
at about 18,000 miles perhour, completing a full orbit in a
little more than an hour and a half. In all, the satellite
stayed in space for three months, traveling more than 37 million
miles. The space race between the United States and the Soviet
Union had begun. November 3, 1957 – Laika, a stray dog found
wandering the streets of Moscow, Russia, becomes the first
animal to orbit the Earth. While the experiment proved that a
live person could survive being launched into orbit, and the
weightlessness of space, Laika probably died a couple of hours
after the launch due to stress and overheating. January 31,
1958, the United States successfully launches its first
satellite named Explorer 1. Launched from Cape Canaveral,
Florida, Explorer 1 discovered the Van Allen Radiation Belt, a
belt of charged particles tapped in space by Earth’s magnetic
field. Launch of Explorer 1 – nasa.gov(publi