Mysteries & Wonders of the World trading cards were issued in by Cooper & Co. Ltd. of Glasgow Northwest, Scotland. The illustrated 50-card collection was distributed in two series of 25 cards. One card was included with each box of Coopers Tea. Each card measures approximately 68 x 36 mm. A collector album was sold separately for six pence at participating grocers and by mail order.

Series 1 includes an illustration of Sputnik 1, the first man-made object launched into orbit. The depiction of the Soviet satellite is not accurate, likely due to the limited information available at the time. Sputnik (Спутник) is Russian for "companion" or "satellite." Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957, from Baikonur Cosmodrome in modern-day Kazakhstan. The event was a catalyst for the creation of NASA and the beginning of the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States.

The satellite transmitted audio pulses at 20.005 and 40.002 MHz. Air pressure and temperature data was encoded into the radio signal duration and pauses. Sputnik 1 reentered the atmosphere on January 4, 1958, after completing about 1,440 orbits around the Earth.

"Space Pioneers" features Miss Able and Miss Baker, the first primates safely recovered from space. Miss Able, a rhesus macaque, and Miss Baker, a squirrel monkey, were launched aboard the nose cone of Jupiter AM-18 on May 28, 1959. The Bio-Flight No. 2 experiment travelled to an apogee of about 300 miles (483 km) before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. Both monkeys were recovered about 1,500 miles downrange by the USS Kiowa.