Who Invented the First Space Rocket?

The first rocket to go into space was created by a team of German scientists, led by Wernher von Braun. It was a V-2 rocket used by Germany in World War II. Von Braun and many important members of his team had surrendered to the United States.
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.