Q 01/05

After the Shuttle retired in 2011, which company next launched NASA astronauts into orbit from US soil?

A) Boeing

B) SpaceX

C) Blue Origin

D) Lockheed Martin

Answer · why

B) SpaceX

SpaceX: in 2020 its crew collected a small US flag the last Shuttle crew had left on the space station, a flag first flown on the very first Shuttle m...

Q 02/05

What did STS, the Shuttle's official abbreviation, stand for?

A) Shuttle Transit Service

B) Space Transportation System

C) Standard Transit Shuttle

D) Solid Thrust System

Answer · why

B) Space Transportation System

Space Transportation System: a 1969 plan led by Vice President Spiro Agnew proposed a family of reusable spacecraft, but only the Shuttle was funded.

Q 03/05

The first Shuttle launch, on April 12, 1981, came exactly 20 years after what?

A) Gagarin's flight

B) Sputnik 1's launch

C) The Moon landing

D) NASA's founding

Answer · why

A) Gagarin's flight

Gagarin's flight: he orbited Earth on April 12, 1961, and a computer fault scrubbed the Shuttle's first attempt on April 10, pushing liftoff onto the ...

Q 04/05

Which two astronauts flew STS-1, the first Space Shuttle mission?

A) Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin

B) John Young and Robert Crippen

C) Ken Mattingly and Henry Hartsfield

D) Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton

Answer · why

B) John Young and Robert Crippen

John Young and Robert Crippen flew through a booster overpressure wave that damaged tiles, so NASA later modified the pad's water sound suppression sy...

Q 05/05

Which US president approved development of the Space Shuttle?

A) Richard Nixon

B) Dwight Eisenhower

C) Gerald Ford

D) Jimmy Carter

Answer · why

A) Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon approved it in January 1972, saying the Shuttle would 'take the astronomical costs out of astronautics'.