The Space Race was a competition between the Soviet Union and the United States (bitter Cold War rivals), to put the first craft into space. Below is the timeline of events.

YearCountrySpacecraft Details of mission
During second world warGermanyV-2Built an exploding rocket
1957Soviet UnionR-7 SemyorkaFirst ballistic missile designed for nuclear weapons delivery
1957Soviet UnionSputnik 1First artificial satellite to orbit Earth and the first signals from space
1957Soviet UnionSputnik 2Dog called Laika was first animal to orbit Earth
1958USAExplorer 1First US satellite
1959Soviet UnionLuna probesFirst lunar spacecraft
1959USAVanguard 2, Explorer 6First weather satellite,First image of Earth from space
1961Soviet UnionVostok 1 Yuri Gargarin became the first human in space
1963Soviet UnionVostok 6 First Woman and first civilian in space (Valentina Tereshkova)
1965Soviet UnionVoskhod spacecraftFirst ever spacewalk
1969USAApollo 11Three US astronauts flew to the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon while Michael Collins orbited.
1971Soviet UnionSalyut 1Soviet spacecraft became the first orbiting space station
1975Soviet Union – USAApollo SoyuzThe first joint US-Soviet spaceflight
1981USANASAThe first space shuttle was launched
1984USASTS-41B Bruce McCandless 2 became the first person to do a spacewalk without being attached to the spacecraft
1986Soviet UnionMirRussian space station
1990USAHubble space telescopeThe US space shuttle launched the Hubble space telescope