The beginning of the space race was the competition over the V2 Rocket from Germany, and USSR launch of Sputnik.

From there the race was on, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was born.

The Soviets where winning at every milestone in space, until the Apollo 11 put U.S. Astronauts on the moon.

The National Archives provides a timeline of space travel up to 2013.

The U.S. early X planes where the test beds for humans leaving and returning to the atmosphere.

The exploration of the solar system my NASA today is truly amazing.

There is even a space news Website called space.com.

The Scientific American has section dedicated to space news as well.

And for even more space news, there is phys.org

Of course SpaceX seems to be the most aggressive R&D space corporaton active today.

The Planetary Society lists all the current space exploration projects of the day.