50 Fun Facts About Space Race

What was the name of the first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957?

The name translates as 'fellow traveler'; it was a beeping metal sphere less than two feet across that weighed under 200 pounds.

Which Soviet rocket, the first ICBM, launched Sputnik and became the basis for Vostok and Soyuz?

It flew 6,000 km on August 21, 1957, and its descendants are still flying, making it the world's most reliable space launcher.

Which German rocket engineer developed the Redstone rocket and first directed the Marshall Space Flight Center?

His wartime A-4, better known as the V-2, was the missile both superpowers copied to start their programs.

Which secret Soviet chief designer got the Academy of Sciences to commit in 1955 to beating the US to a satellite?

Wikipedia treats that August 30, 1955 decision as the de facto start of the Space Race; he died in January 1966, weeks before Soyuz was ready.

Which dog became the first animal in orbit, aboard the second Soviet satellite in 1957?

There was no way to bring her home; in 2002 it emerged she died of stress and overheating on the fourth orbit, not when the oxygen ran out as first claimed.

What was the first mammal in space, launched by the US on a suborbital flight in June 1949?

He died on landing when his parachute failed; the Soviets used dogs for the same job while the US preferred monkeys and apes.

Which of these mocking names did newspapers give the Vanguard satellite after its December 1957 launch blew up?

Others were Stayputnik, Kaputnik and Dudnik; at the UN the Soviet delegate offered America aid 'under the Soviet program of technical assistance to backwards nations'.

What was the first successful American satellite, launched on January 31, 1958?

Its Geiger tube saturated as it passed through a zone of intense radiation, confirming what became known as the Van Allen belt.

Which scientist built the first US satellite's instruments and had the radiation belts it found named after him?

He was based at the University of Iowa; the belt is a doughnut-shaped zone of intense radiation above the magnetic equator.

On which date did President Eisenhower sign the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating NASA?

The law turned the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics into NASA; the bill was steered through Congress by Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson.

Which Soviet probe was the first spacecraft to hit the Moon, on September 14, 1959?

Its predecessor had missed the Moon entirely, and its successor sent back the first pictures of the far side three weeks later.

How long did Yuri Gagarin's single-orbit flight aboard Vostok 1 last on April 12, 1961?

The capsule flew in automatic mode; he carried an envelope with the code to unlock manual control in an emergency.

Roughly translated from Russian and Greek, what does 'cosmonaut' mean?

'Astronaut' comes from the Greek for 'star sailor'; April 12 became Cosmonautics Day in the USSR and, in 2011, the UN's International Day of Human Space Flight.

How did Vostok cosmonauts return to the ground after re-entry?

The spherical descent module landed too hard for a person to ride it down safely, so the cosmonaut bailed out at about 7,000 metres.

What did Alan Shepard name the Mercury capsule that made him the first American in space?

His flight was suborbital, but he was the first person to take manual control of a spacecraft's attitude and retro-rocket firing.

How many orbits did John Glenn complete on February 20, 1962, as the first American to orbit the Earth?

Telemetry falsely suggested a loose heat shield during re-entry; he splashed down safely and got a ticker-tape parade like Lindbergh's.

Faith 7 in May 1963 pushed the Mercury spacecraft to its maximum endurance of how many orbits?

NASA dropped a planned three-day Mercury mission because it still would not have beaten the Soviet record, and moved on to Gemini instead.

Who was the first woman in space, launched on Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963?

Unlike the male cosmonauts she was a parachutist factory worker, not a test pilot, and five months later she married Vostok 3 cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev.

Which cosmonaut made the first spacewalk in March 1965 and nearly could not get back in when his suit ballooned?

He had to partially depressurise his suit to squeeze back through the inflatable airlock; it was Korolev's last space first before his death.

On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy asked Congress to commit to landing a man on the Moon by when?

Only two months earlier he had rejected a NASA budget for a Moon landing as too expensive; Gagarin's flight and the Bay of Pigs changed his mind.

Where did Kennedy deliver his 'We choose to go to the Moon' speech on September 12, 1962?

The Houston venue was near the construction site of what became the Johnson Space Center.

In a September 1963 UN speech, Kennedy proposed that the US and USSR should do what?

Khrushchev's son later claimed his father was about to accept when Kennedy was assassinated, but did not trust Lyndon Johnson enough to go ahead.

Which March 1966 mission made the world's first docking, then spun wildly when a thruster stuck?

Command pilot Neil Armstrong stopped the spin using the re-entry control system, and he and David Scott came home early but safe.

How many crewed missions did NASA's two-man program between Mercury and Apollo fly?

The program took advantage of a two-year Soviet pause while Soyuz was developed, letting the US catch up and pass the USSR in piloted spaceflight.

Which three astronauts died in the Apollo 1 fire on January 27, 1967?

The fire in a pure-oxygen cabin during a ground test could not be escaped because the plug-door hatch would not open against the internal pressure.

Who became the first person to die on a spaceflight when Soyuz 1's parachutes failed in 1967?

The mission had suffered a failed solar panel and dead stabilisation systems before the emergency re-entry, and the reserve chute tangled with the drogue.

Which three astronauts flew Apollo 8, the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon, in December 1968?

Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders made ten orbits in twenty hours; the mission was moved up because the Lunar Module was not ready.

Which Soviet super-heavy Moon rocket blew up on its launch pad on 3 July 1969?

It exceeded the Saturn V's takeoff thrust by 28% but never had a single successful test flight before cancellation in May 1974.

How close to the lunar surface did Apollo 10's Lunar Module fly in its May 1969 'dress rehearsal'?

That is the altitude where the powered descent to the surface would begin; the LM had first flown with a crew in Earth orbit on Apollo 9 that March.

Roughly how many people watched Neil Armstrong's first step on the Moon live on television?

That was at least one-fifth of the population of Earth; Buzz Aldrin joined him on the surface almost 20 minutes later.

Which Soviet probe entered lunar orbit just before Apollo 11 and shared it with the American mission?

Frank Borman used his Soviet contacts to make sure it would not interfere with Apollo 11's flight plan.

How many days had passed between Kennedy's Moon commitment and Apollo 11's splashdown on July 24, 1969?

The goal was met with 161 days to spare before the end of the decade.

How many astronauts walked on the Moon across the six Apollo landings from 1969 to 1972?

The landings were Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17; Apollo 13 aborted, and Apollos 18-20 were cancelled by budget cuts.

Apollo 12 landed in 1969 within walking distance of which earlier US spacecraft?

The lander had touched down on April 20, 1967, and its soil sampler showed the surface was firm enough to hold a Lunar Module.

Which 1966 Soviet probe made the first soft landing on the Moon?

Luna 10 followed as the first man-made object to orbit the Moon; the US Surveyor 1 became the second craft to soft-land.

Which Soviet probe in 1970 was the first uncrewed spacecraft to return a sample from the Moon?

The same year the USSR landed the first robotic rover, Lunokhod, on the Moon, and repeated the trick in 1973.

What was the first space station, launched by the Soviet Union on April 19, 1971?

The Soyuz 11 crew who occupied it for a record 22 days died on re-entry when a valve vented their cabin air; they wore no pressure suits.

How were the Soyuz 11 cosmonauts killed on June 30, 1971, after leaving the first space station?

Afterward Soviet engineers redesigned Soyuz and made cosmonauts wear Sokol pressure suits for launch and landing.

What was the name of the single US orbital workshop launched on a leftover Saturn V on May 14, 1973?

It lost a solar panel and a meteoroid shield on the way up, was repaired by its crews, and fell over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia in July 1979.

How long did Skylab's third and final crew stay in orbit, setting an endurance record in February 1974?

The Soviet Salyut 4 later broke it at 92 days, and Salyut 6 and 7 were occupied for 683 and 816 days respectively.

Which Soviet probe in 1970 was the first spacecraft to return data after landing on another planet?

Its instruments reported 475 C and a pressure of 92 bar on the surface of Venus.

Mars 3 landed on Mars in 1971 but transmitted for how long before losing contact?

Its sibling Mars 2 had crashed weeks earlier, becoming the first man-made object to hit Mars.

Which NASA probe became the first spacecraft to fly past another planet, passing Venus in December 1962?

Mariner 1 had failed shortly after launch; Mariner 4 later made the first successful Mars flyby in 1964, returning 21 pictures.

On what date in 1975 did the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft dock in orbit?

Soyuz 19 launched first, with Apollo following six and a half hours later; the crews swapped gifts and visited each other's craft.

Which US President and Soviet leader negotiated the 1972 détente behind the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project?

The joint mission also produced an international docking standard, APAS-75, and is often called the final act of the Space Race.

Which household product was developed to prevent rust on Atlas rockets, avoiding heavy paint?

The Atlas used a thin stainless-steel tank kept rigid by internal pressure, so every ounce of weight mattered.

Which 1962 US nuclear test detonated a bomb in outer space?

More than 100 nations, including both superpowers, signed the 1963 treaty.

Which two cosmonaut flights of August 1962 flew near-identical orbits within about 6.5 km?

They had no manoeuvring rockets, so they drifted as far apart as 2,850 km, but the USSR had shown a 24-hour launch-pad turnaround.

Which Soviet probe sent back the first pictures of the far side of the Moon, in October 1959?

The 278.5 kg probe flew past the Moon to photograph the hemisphere that is never visible from Earth.

Which October 1964 mission was the first spaceflight to carry a three-person crew?

Korolev converted surplus Vostok capsules to beat Gemini to the milestone; Khrushchev was deposed the day after the crew landed.