On November 3, 1957, a Soviet space dog named Laika became the first animal to orbit Earth. Laika was a 3-year-old stray husky-spitz mix from the streets of Moscow, and she was recruited by the Soviet ...

Forty years ago, Sputnik and the Soviets set the course for a space race with the West. Now the satellite, the space race - and even the Soviet Union itself - are gone. But Sputnik’s legacy endures.

The Sputnik 8K71PS rocket streaks across the sky over Montreal on its way to deliver Sputnik 1 into orbit. Scientists from the California Institute of Technology track Sputnik 1 from a mobile van.

The third stage of Sputnik I's rocket may have plunged to its death on its 879th circuit Saturday night, announced Fred L. Whipple, Director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Whipple bases ...

GAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Dec. 6--The Vanguard test rocket--with U.S. hopes for some recaptured prestige aboard--barely struggled off the ground today, then fell back and exploded. Although there are two ...

A selection of songs from the launch of the space age. The launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 50 years ago this week marked the dawn of the space age — and sparked songwriters' imaginations. When ...

Fifty years ago Thursday, the Soviet Union started the Space Age by sending the first man-made satellite into orbit around the earth. Sputnik changed history when it went into space on Oct. 4, 1957, ...

Engineers have assembled the twin booster rockets for NASA’s massive Space Launch System (SLS) — the first deep-space rocket since Saturn V, which sent astronauts to the Moon. Since November, workers ...