49 Fun Facts About Space Race

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

Sputnik 1, Russian for 'fellow traveler', was a beach-ball-sized metal sphere that simply broadcast radio pulses; the shock in America led directly to the creation of NASA the following year.

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

The R-7 Semyorka first flew its full range to Kamchatka on August 21, 1957; it proved impractical as a weapon but became the workhorse of Soviet spaceflight, and the Soyuz rocket family descends from it.

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

Wernher von Braun built the V-2 for Nazi Germany, surrendered to American troops in 1945 and was brought to the US under Operation Paperclip; his Saturn V later launched Apollo crews to the Moon.

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

Sergei Korolev, the anonymous 'Chief Designer', won the Academy of Sciences commission on August 30, 1955 that aimed to beat the US into orbit; his identity stayed secret until his death in January 1966.

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

Laika was launched on November 3, 1957 with no way home; in 2002 Russian scientists revealed she died of overheating and stress within hours, around the fourth orbit, not when her oxygen ran out.

What was the first mammal in space, launched by the US in June 1949?

The first was a rhesus monkey named Albert II, who rode a V-2 to 134 km on June 14, 1949 and died on impact when the parachute failed.

Which US rocket, mocked in the press as 'Flopnik' and 'Kaputnik', exploded on its launch pad in December 1957?

Vanguard rose about a metre on December 6, 1957, then fell back and exploded; its tiny satellite was thrown clear and lay on the ground still transmitting, a gift to headline writers after two Soviet successes.

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

Explorer 1 rode a Juno I rocket from Cape Canaveral on January 31, 1958; its Geiger tube saturated in a zone of intense radiation, the first hint of Earth's radiation belts.

Which University of Iowa physicist led the cosmic-ray experiment aboard the first US satellite?

James Van Allen of the University of Iowa led the cosmic-ray experiment on the first US satellite; the doughnut-shaped radiation zones it revealed were named the Van Allen belts.

Which US president signed the act that created NASA?

Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, choosing a civilian agency over a military one; NASA opened that October, built on the old aeronautics agency NACA.

Which Soviet probe became the first spacecraft to hit the Moon, in September 1959?

Luna 2 struck the Moon just after midnight Moscow time on September 14, 1959, the first man-made object to reach another world, scattering pennants bearing the Soviet coat of arms; its predecessor had missed the Moon entirely.

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

Gagarin's flight lasted 108 minutes from launch to landing; Vostok 1 flew on automatic, and he carried a sealed envelope with the code to unlock manual control in an emergency.

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

'Cosmonaut' joins Greek kosmos (universe) and nautes (sailor), hence sailor of the universe, while 'astronaut' is a star sailor; in 2011 the UN made April 12, Gagarin's launch date, the International Day of Human Space Flight.

How did Vostok cosmonauts reach the ground?

They ejected and parachuted separately from the capsule at about 7,000 metres because the descent sphere hit the ground too hard; Soviet officials hid this for years so Gagarin's flight would count as a record.

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

Shepard named his capsule Freedom 7; unlike Gagarin, whose flight three weeks earlier ran on automatic, he took manual control of its attitude during the 15-minute suborbital hop on May 5, 1961.

Which astronaut became the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in February 1962?

John Glenn circled the Earth three times in just under five hours; when a faulty signal suggested his heat shield was loose, controllers had him keep the retro-rocket pack strapped on through re-entry to hold it in place.

Which Mercury astronaut flew the program's last and longest mission, 22 orbits in May 1963?

Gordon Cooper spent 34 hours aloft, longer than all earlier Mercury flights combined; when a short circuit killed his automatic controls he flew re-entry by hand and splashed down four miles from the recovery ship.

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

Valentina Tereshkova, a textile worker and amateur parachutist rather than a test pilot, spent 71 hours in orbit; in November 1963 she married fellow cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev.

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

Alexei Leonov floated outside his capsule for about 12 minutes on March 18, 1965; with his suit stiffened by vacuum, he bled air from it to squeeze back through the inflatable airlock.

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

Kennedy asked for a Moon landing before the end of the decade ('before this decade is out'); that March he had held back NASA's request for Moon money, until Gagarin's flight and the Bay of Pigs fiasco raised the pressure.

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

Kennedy spoke at Rice Stadium in Houston, the home field of Rice University, which had helped NASA acquire land for the Manned Spacecraft Center, later renamed the Johnson Space Center.

In a September 1963 UN speech, what did Kennedy propose the US and USSR do?

Kennedy proposed that the two nations join forces on a mission to the Moon, asking why they should duplicate research and spending; it came barely two years after he had challenged America to get there first.

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

Gemini 8 docked with an Agena target on March 16, 1966, then a stuck thruster set it tumbling; Neil Armstrong stopped the spin with the re-entry thrusters and he and David Scott landed early but safe.

Which rocket launched NASA's two-man Gemini crews into orbit in 1965 and 1966?

Titan II, a modified ballistic missile, launched all ten crewed Gemini flights; the Soviets flew no cosmonauts during that run, while Gemini crews mastered the rendezvous, spacewalks and long flights a Moon trip needed.

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

Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee died in a pure-oxygen cabin fire during a launch-pad test; the inward-opening plug-door hatch could not be opened against the internal pressure.

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

Vladimir Komarov died on April 24, 1967 when Soyuz 1's main parachute failed and the reserve tangled with the drogue; one solar panel had never unfolded, starving the craft of power, and its automatic stabilisation had died.

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?

The N1's second test flight fell back onto its pad seconds after liftoff on 3 July 1969 and wrecked it; all four N1 launches failed.

Which Apollo mission flew its Lunar Module, Snoopy, to within 15 km of the Moon without landing?

Apollo 10 took Snoopy down to about 47,400 feet (14.4 km) in May 1969, the height where a real powered descent would begin, then climbed back to the command module Charlie Brown; the landing followed two months later.

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

About 600 million people, roughly a fifth of humanity, are estimated to have watched live, and some counts run past 700 million; Buzz Aldrin followed Armstrong down the ladder about 19 minutes later.

Which Apollo mission was at the Moon when a Soviet robot probe crashed there trying to bring back soil first?

Apollo 11 shared lunar orbit with an uncrewed Soviet Luna probe sent to scoop up soil and beat the Americans home; it crashed about two hours before Armstrong and Aldrin lifted off.

How long did Armstrong and Aldrin's single moonwalk outside Eagle last?

Armstrong and Aldrin's moonwalk ran about two and a half hours (2 h 31 min); they planted a flag, set out experiments and gathered some 21 kg of rock and soil before climbing back into Eagle.

How many astronauts walked on the Moon from 1969 to 1972?

Twelve men walked on the Moon, two on each of the six landings; Apollo 13 aborted its landing after an explosion, and three more planned landings were cancelled.

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

Conrad and Bean landed Intrepid a short walk from Surveyor 3, which had sat on the Moon since April 1967; they cut off its TV camera and brought it home so engineers could study two and a half years of lunar exposure.

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

Luna 9 touched down in Oceanus Procellarum on February 3, 1966; Britain's Jodrell Bank telescope picked up its picture signal, and a newspaper's fax receiver decoded the first photos from the Moon's surface before Moscow released them.

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

Luna 16 drilled 101 grams of soil from Mare Fecunditatis and parachuted it into Kazakhstan in September 1970, a robotic answer to Apollo after the Soviets' own crewed Moon rocket kept failing.

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

Salyut 1 was the first space station; the Soyuz 10 crew docked but could not get inside, and the Soyuz 11 crew then lived aboard for about three weeks in June 1971.

How did the three Soyuz 11 cosmonauts die in 1971?

Their cabin depressurised through a faulty valve that jolted open when the modules separated at 168 km; the crew suffocated within a minute, and Soyuz was redesigned to carry cosmonauts in Sokol pressure suits.

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

Skylab, built from a converted Saturn V third stage, lost its meteoroid shield and one solar array during launch and began to overheat; its first crew saved it by pushing a parasol sunshade out through a small airlock.

Where did debris from America's first space station fall in July 1979, earning NASA a $400 littering fine?

Western Australia caught the pieces that survived when the abandoned station broke up on July 11, 1979; the Shire of Esperance jokingly fined NASA $400 for littering, and a US radio host finally paid the bill in 2009.

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

Venera 7's parachute failed during its descent to Venus and the probe hit hard, probably coming to rest on its side, so only a faint signal reached Earth for about 23 minutes; it still reported roughly 475 °C.

On which planet did a Soviet lander touch down in December 1971, only to fall silent within two minutes?

Mars was the target: the Mars 3 lander made the first soft landing there on December 2, 1971, then fell silent while sending a blank grey image, perhaps a victim of a planet-wide dust storm; its twin had crashed five days earlier.

Which NASA probe made the first successful flyby of another planet, passing Venus in December 1962?

Mariner 2 passed within 35,000 km of Venus on December 14, 1962, confirming its scorching surface; it was the twin of Mariner 1, launched just 36 days after that probe veered off course and was destroyed.

Which astronaut, grounded in 1962 by a heart condition, finally flew in space on Apollo–Soyuz in 1975?

Deke Slayton lost his Mercury flight when he was grounded, then spent a decade helping pick the Gemini and Apollo crews; cleared in 1972, he finally flew himself, sixteen years after NASA chose him.

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

Nixon and Brezhnev met at the May 1972 Moscow summit, where Nixon and Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin signed the space pact behind the joint flight; a docking module served as an airlock because the two craft used different air.

Which household product was first used on the skin of Atlas missiles in the 1950s?

WD-40 ('Water Displacement, 40th formula') was perfected in 1953 by the Rocket Chemical Company on its fortieth try; Convair first used it to keep the Atlas missile's outer skin from rusting.

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

Starfish Prime exploded a 1.4-megaton warhead 400 km above Johnston Atoll on July 9, 1962, knocking out streetlights in Hawaii and crippling several satellites; the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty barred such tests.

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

Luna 3 swung behind the Moon in October 1959 and photographed the hemisphere never seen from Earth, developing its film on board and then scanning the frames back by radio.

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

Voskhod 1 carried a pilot, an engineer and a doctor for a day on October 12-13, 1964, squeezed into a modified one-man capsule with no room for spacesuits; Khrushchev was deposed the day after they landed.