What are the four major elements that make up ~99% of our atmosphere?

The four major elements that make up our atmosphere are Oxygen, Nitrogen, Argon, and Carbon Dioxide.

Where are they though?

The soviet union beat the us to the first successful launch, with the october 4, 1957, orbiting of sputnik 1, and later beat the us to have the first human in earth orbit, yuri gagarin, on april 12, 1961. the "race" peaked with the july 20, 1969, us landing of the first humans on the moon with apollo 11