Q 01/05

Musk funded SpaceX with money from selling which company?

A) Hotmail

B) PayPal

C) Netscape

D) SolarCity

Answer · why

B) PayPal

PayPal's sale to eBay made Musk rich, yet by 2008 SpaceX, Tesla and Musk himself were all close to going broke.

Q 02/05

The Falcon rocket family is named after a spacecraft from which film franchise?

A) Star Trek

B) Star Wars

C) Alien

D) Stargate

Answer · why

B) Star Wars

Star Wars' Millennium Falcon gave the rockets their name, and Musk says he named Dragon after 'Puff the Magic Dragon' to answer critics who called his...

Q 03/05

Falcon 1's failed third launch in August 2008 carried the ashes of which Star Trek actor?

A) Leonard Nimoy

B) James Doohan

C) Nichelle Nichols

D) Majel Barrett

Answer · why

B) James Doohan

James Doohan's ashes were lost in that failure, but another portion finally reached orbit on a Falcon 9 in May 2012.

Q 04/05

From which Pacific atoll were all Falcon 1 launches conducted?

A) Johnston Atoll

B) Wake Island

C) Kwajalein

D) Midway Atoll

Answer · why

C) Kwajalein

Kwajalein, a US Army missile test range, took Falcon 1 after SpaceX was shut out of launching from California's Vandenberg base.

Q 05/05

In March 2025, SpaceX's Crew-9 brought home two NASA astronauts whose own capsule, built by which company, had thruster trouble?

A) Lockheed Martin

B) Boeing

C) Northrop Grumman

D) Blue Origin

Answer · why

B) Boeing

Boeing's Starliner flew Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams up in June 2024 for an eight-day test, but NASA judged it too risky to fly them home, so they ...