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A key advance was the invention of the first liquid-fuelled rocket in 1926 by the American Robert Goddard in Auburn, Massachusetts. Goddard is considered to be one of the fathers of the modern rocket era.
The first satellite in space was Russia's Sputnik satellite, carried by an R-7 rocket. The R-7 rocket was built by a team of German and Russian scientists led by Sergei Korolev. Sputnik was placed into orbit on October 4, 1957, months before the first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1. Korolev's team managed to create a rocket big enough to take Yuri Gagarin into space. Gagarin became the first man in space, but the U.S. astronaut, Neil Armstrong, became the first man on the moon. Learn more about Space Travel