59 years ago: The Soviet Union launched the first object into space, started the Space Race From there man went where no man had ever gone before.

On Oct. 4, 1957, the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik, was launched by the former Soviet Union from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Wavy and high-pitched, the beep-beep signal picked up on Earth signaled the dawn of a new era. less On Oct. 4, 1957, the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik, was launched by the former Soviet Union from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Wavy and high-pitched, the beep-beep signal picked up on ... more Photo: OFF, Getty Images Photo: OFF, Getty Images Image 1 of / 87 Caption Close 59 years ago: The Soviet Union launched the first object into space, started the Space Race 1 / 87 Back to Gallery

This week in 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first human-made object into space and started a race that has continued for nearly six decades, although in changing forms.

On Oct. 4, 1957, Sputnik, which is Russian for "traveler," was launched through Earth's atmosphere, according to Today in History. The main competitors in the Space Race were the Soviet Union and the United States of America.

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The two super-powers continued to target outer space during the heated race throughout the 1960s, but lunar-mission interest waned for the Americans in the early 1970s. And the out-of-this-world competition eventually came to an end with a handshake in 1975, according to History.com.

Throughout this period, both countries were tense with focus on each other's technological advances, yet 59 years later, some sites of glorified space exploration are now left to the dust and rust of time.

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The United States no longer has its own resources to launch astronauts into space, and many of the former Soviet Union's sites for groundbreaking discoveries have wasted away.

While both nations are pursuing space exploration in other ways, Russian photographer Ralph Mirebs captured the decomposing technologies of the Space Race inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome, an abandoned hangar which holds the crumbling remains of Soviet space shuttle prototypes.