Q 01/05

Who was the first human to travel into space, in April 1961?

A) Yuri Gagarin

B) Alan Shepard

C) John Glenn

D) German Titov

Answer · why

A) Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Gagarin called out "Poyekhali!" ("Off we go!") as the rocket lifted off from Baikonur.

Q 02/05

How far did the first human spaceflight go?

A) Seventeen orbits

B) One orbit

C) Up and down only

D) Around the Moon

Answer · why

B) One orbit

One orbit of the Earth was the whole trip, and the cosmonaut never landed in his capsule: he ejected about 7 km up and came down under his own parachu...

Q 03/05

Who was the first woman in space?

A) Svetlana Savitskaya

B) Mae Jemison

C) Valentina Tereshkova

D) Sally Ride

Answer · why

C) Valentina Tereshkova

Valentina Tereshkova spent almost three days in orbit, logging more flight time on her one mission than all the American astronauts who had flown befo...

Q 04/05

Who was the first American in space?

A) John Glenn

B) Gus Grissom

C) Neil Armstrong

D) Alan Shepard

Answer · why

D) Alan Shepard

He named his Mercury capsule Freedom 7 and later hit golf balls on the Moon during Apollo 14.

Q 05/05

Who was the first American woman in space?

A) Sally Ride

B) Judith Resnik

C) Kathryn Sullivan

D) Christa McAuliffe

Answer · why

A) Sally Ride

Sally Ride had aimed at a professional tennis career before choosing physics at Stanford; she joined NASA in 1978 and flew on the shuttle five years l...