50 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, whose name means 'fellow traveler', was a polished 58 cm sphere weighing 83.6 kg that beeped from orbit for 21 days until its batteries died.

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

The R-7 Semyorka made its first fully successful flight on August 21, 1957, carrying a dummy warhead some 6,000 km to Kamchatka; the Soyuz launcher family descends from it.

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

Wernher von Braun led the wartime A-4 (V-2) team at Peenemünde, then the Redstone at Huntsville, and was Marshall Space Flight Center's first director from 1960 to 1970.

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 rode Sputnik 2 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 on a suborbital flight 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 of these mocking names did newspapers give the Vanguard satellite after its December 1957 launch blew up?

'Flopnik' was one of the press labels, alongside 'Kaputnik', 'Stayputnik' and 'Dudnik'; at the UN the Soviet delegate offered America aid 'under the Soviet program of technical assistance to backward nations'.

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 built the cosmic-ray instrument aboard the first US satellite?

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

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

Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, turning the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics into NASA, which opened on October 1 that year; Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson steered the bill.

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

Luna 2 struck the Moon on September 14, 1959 Moscow time, 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; 'astronaut' likewise means 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?

Shepard named his capsule Freedom 7; the 15-minute suborbital hop on May 5, 1961 made him the first person to steer a spacecraft's attitude by hand.

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

Glenn circled the Earth three times in Friendship 7 in just under five hours; a false telemetry signal about a loose heat shield worried controllers, but he splashed down safely and got a ticker-tape parade.

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

Gordon Cooper's Faith 7 completed 22 orbits over 34 hours on May 15-16, 1963, the longest Mercury flight; NASA then cancelled a planned longer Mercury mission and moved on to Gemini.

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 Voskhod 2 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 man on the Moon before the end of the decade ('before this decade is out'); two months earlier he had refused extra Apollo funding, until 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?

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, Kennedy proposed that the US and USSR should do what?

Kennedy proposed that the two nations join forces on a mission to the Moon, asking why they should duplicate effort; Sergei Khrushchev later said his father was ready to accept but distrusted Lyndon Johnson after the assassination.

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.

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

Gemini flew ten crewed missions, Gemini 3 to Gemini 12, between March 1965 and November 1966, during a two-year Soviet pause while Soyuz was developed, letting the US overtake the USSR in piloted spaceflight.

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; the craft had already lost a solar panel and its stabilisation systems.

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 the pad on 3 July 1969 in one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history; all four N1 launches failed and the programme was suspended in 1974.

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

Snoopy, Apollo 10's Lunar Module, came within about 47,400 feet (14.4 km) of the surface, near the height at which a real powered descent would start; the LM had first flown crewed on Apollo 9 in March.

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

Estimates put the live audience at about 723 million, roughly one-fifth of the world's 1969 population; Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface about 19 minutes later.

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

Luna 15, an uncrewed sample-return attempt, entered lunar orbit two days before Apollo 11 arrived and crashed during its descent on July 21, 1969; Frank Borman used his recent Soviet contacts to confirm it would not cross Apollo 11's path.

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

The lone Apollo 11 moonwalk ran about two and a half hours (2 h 31 min); the pair gathered some 21 kg of rock and soil before climbing back into Eagle.

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

Twelve men walked on the Moon, two on each of Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17; Apollo 13 aborted and Apollos 18 to 20 were cancelled by budget cuts.

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

Conrad and Bean set Intrepid down about 160 metres from Surveyor 3, which had landed on April 20, 1967; they retrieved its camera and scoop so engineers could study 31 months 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 and sent the first photographs from the lunar surface; America's Surveyor 1 followed with the second soft landing that June.

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 landed it in Kazakhstan on September 24, 1970; two months later Luna 17 delivered the Lunokhod 1 rover.

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

Salyut 1 was the first space station, an 18.5-tonne single-module laboratory; the Soyuz 10 crew failed to board it, and the Soyuz 11 crew then lived aboard from June 7 to June 29, 1971.

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

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; its first crew rigged a sunshade, and it fell over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia on July 11, 1979.

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

The third and final crew stayed 84 days, landing on February 8, 1974; the record stood until the Soyuz 26 crew spent 96 days aboard Salyut 6 in 1977-78.

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

Venera 7 landed on Venus on December 15, 1970 and sent a faint signal for about 23 minutes; its readings of roughly 475 °C and 90 atmospheres were the first data from another planet's surface.

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

Mars 3's lander went silent after 14.5 seconds of a partial, featureless image on December 2, 1971; its twin Mars 2 had crashed five days earlier, the first man-made object to reach Mars.

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

Mariner 2 passed within 35,000 km of Venus on December 14, 1962, confirming its scorching surface; Mariner 1 had been destroyed after launch, and Mariner 4 made the first Mars flyby in July 1965.

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

The craft docked on July 17, 1975, two days after Soyuz 19 and then Apollo launched about seven and a half hours apart; the crews exchanged gifts and visited each other's craft over two days.

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

Nixon and Brezhnev signed the space cooperation agreement at the May 1972 Moscow summit; the joint mission produced the APAS-75 androgynous docking system 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?

WD-40 ('Water Displacement, 40th formula') was created in 1953 by the Rocket Chemical Company to keep the Atlas missile's thin stainless-steel balloon tanks from corroding; the tank was held rigid by internal pressure.

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

Vostok 3 and Vostok 4, launched a day apart from the same pad on August 11 and 12, 1962, passed within about 6.5 km but had no manoeuvring engines and drifted up to 2,850 km apart.

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

Luna 3 swung past the Moon on October 7, 1959 and photographed about 70 percent of the far side, the hemisphere never seen from Earth, developing the film on board and scanning it 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, in a Vostok capsule stripped of ejection seats and spacesuits to fit the crew; Khrushchev was deposed the day after they landed.