Below is the detailed information provided using the timeline:

1. SPUTNIK 2: A dog called Laika survived for a few hours in space aboard Sputnik 2.
2. 1957: The Soviet Union launches the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, into space. Sputnik 2 follows a few weeks later.
3. 1961: Russian Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to orbit Earth aboard Vostok 1.
4. 1969: American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr. are the first people to step onto the moon, as part of the Apollo 11 mission.
5. 1972: The space probe Pioneer 10 blasts off to study Jupiter and its moons.
6. 1976: Viking I and Viking II space probes land on Mars and send back photos of the red planet’s surface.