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Challenge yourself with our comprehensive NASA trivia quiz featuring 97 free questions with answers about space exploration history, iconic missions, and groundbreaking discoveries. From the Apollo program to modern Mars rovers, test your knowledge of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's greatest achievements. Whether you're a space enthusiast or casual learner, this quiz will expand your understanding of NASA's role in humanity's exploration of the cosmos.
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Q 01In what year was NASA established?
1958
NASA was established in 1958 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).
Q 02Who was the first American in space?
Alan Shepard
Alan Shepard made a 15-minute suborbital flight on 5 May 1961 and, a decade later at 47, commanded Apollo 14 as the oldest of the Apollo moonwalkers.
Q 03Which NASA program successfully landed humans on the Moon?
Apollo
The program ended with its December 1972 mission; no human has travelled beyond low Earth orbit since.
Q 04What famous space telescope was launched in 1990?
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope went up with a mirror ground to the wrong shape; a 1993 shuttle repair fitted corrective optics, and it is still working decades later.
Q 05Which rocket launched Artemis I on its uncrewed trip around the Moon in November 2022?
Space Launch System
The Space Launch System made its debut on 16 November 2022, lifting the uncrewed Artemis I capsule from Kennedy's Pad 39B toward the Moon on its first flight.
Q 06Who was the first administrator of NASA?
T. Keith Glennan
T. Keith Glennan was NASA's first administrator, serving from its October 1958 start until January 1961, then returned to the presidency of the Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland.
Q 07Which space shuttle tragically broke apart during re-entry in 2003?
Columbia
The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry to Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003, killing all seven astronauts, due to damage sustained during launch.
Q 08What is the name of the first Mars rover successfully landed by NASA?
Sojourner
Sojourner rode down with the Mars Pathfinder lander on July 4, 1997, and outlived its planned seven-day mission by nearly three months, operating until late September.
Q 09Between them, NASA's two Voyager probes flew past which four planets?
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Between them the Voyagers visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune: Voyager 1 flew past Jupiter and Saturn, while Voyager 2 went on to Uranus (1986) and Neptune (1989), the first spacecraft to reach either.
Q 10Who was the first woman to command a Space Shuttle mission, flying STS-93 in 1999?
Eileen Collins
Eileen Collins commanded STS-93 in July 1999, which deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory; she had been the first woman to pilot the shuttle on STS-63 in 1995 and later commanded the 2005 return-to-flight mission.
Q 11Who was the first American woman in space?
Sally Ride
Sally Ride was only the third woman in space, after two Soviet cosmonauts, and later became the first American woman to fly twice.
Q 12NASA's 'Great Observatories' program included which four major space telescopes?
Hubble, Compton, Chandra, Spitzer
Each covered a different slice of the spectrum, and the four launched between 1990 and 2003.
Q 13What does the acronym NASA stand for?
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Q 21What year was the Space Shuttle program officially retired?
2011
The Space Shuttle program concluded its 30 years of operations with the final landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on July 21, 2011.
Q 22Which NASA rover, landed in 2012, captured a famous 'selfie' on Mars?
Curiosity
Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover, landed in August 2012 and assembles its self-portraits from dozens of frames taken by the MAHLI camera on its robotic arm.
Q 23What is the name of the rocket that launched the Apollo missions to the Moon?
Saturn V
The Saturn V was a super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA for the Apollo program, powerful enough to send humans and spacecraft to the Moon.
NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration; created by the 1958 Space Act as a civilian agency, it absorbed 8,000 staff and three laboratories from its predecessor.
Q 14What was the first satellite successfully launched by the United States?
Explorer 1
Explorer 1, launched on 31 January 1958 by an Army rocket from Cape Canaveral, carried instruments that first detected the Van Allen radiation belt and transmitted for nearly four months.
Q 15Which mission was the first time a US spacecraft docked in orbit with one from another country?
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
In July 1975, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project saw an American Apollo spacecraft dock with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft, symbolizing a thawing of Cold War tensions and paving the way for future international cooperation.
Q 16What is the primary observation wavelength for the James Webb Space Telescope?
Infrared
The James Webb Space Telescope is designed to observe the universe primarily in infrared light, allowing it to peer through dust and gas and study the early universe.
Q 17Which NASA facility in Houston houses Mission Control for human spaceflight?
Johnson Space Center
Johnson Space Center in Houston has hosted Mission Control since Gemini 4 in 1965, which is why crews call 'Houston'; it was named for Lyndon Johnson in 1973.
Q 18Who was the first person to walk on the Moon?
Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon on 20 July 1969 during Apollo 11, saying 'That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind'; Buzz Aldrin followed about 19 minutes later.
Q 19NASA framed the Artemis program as a stepping stone to crewed missions to which destination?
Mars
Mars: Space Policy Directive 1, signed in December 2017, directed a return to the Moon 'followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations', the framing NASA shortened to 'Moon to Mars'.
Q 20What was the name of the first American space station?
Skylab
Skylab was occupied for only about 24 weeks in 1973-74, then fell out of orbit in 1979, scattering debris across Western Australia.
Q 24Which NASA space telescope, launched in 2018, scans the brightest nearby stars for exoplanets?
TESS
TESS launched on a Falcon 9 on 18 April 2018 to watch for the tiny dips in starlight as planets cross their stars, and covered about three-quarters of the sky in its first two years.
Q 25Which module of the International Space Station (ISS) went up first?
Zarya
Zarya, whose name means 'sunrise', was the first ISS module: Russian-built but American-funded, it launched on a Proton rocket on 20 November 1998, two weeks before Unity joined it.
Q 26Which former astronaut, the first American to orbit Earth, later served multiple terms as a U.S. Senator?
John Glenn
John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth on 20 February 1962, represented Ohio in the Senate from 1974 to 1999, and flew again on STS-95 in 1998 at age 77.
Q 27NASA's New Horizons probe made history in 2015 with its close flyby of which dwarf planet?
Pluto
Pluto was still a full planet when New Horizons launched in 2006, and was demoted to dwarf planet before the year was out.
Q 28Which university founded and manages NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory?
Caltech
Caltech: the lab grew out of Caltech rocket experiments in the Arroyo Seco in 1936 and has been run by the university for NASA as a federally funded research center in La Cañada Flintridge.
Q 29Which NASA mission was the first to send a probe to orbit Mars?
Mariner 9
Mariner 9 entered Mars orbit on 14 November 1971, beating the Soviet Mars 2 orbiter by less than two weeks, and arrived during a planet-wide dust storm that hid the surface for months.
Q 30What is the primary purpose of NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN)?
To communicate with interplanetary spacecraft
The Deep Space Network exists to communicate with interplanetary spacecraft: its antenna sites at Goldstone, Madrid and Canberra sit about 120 degrees apart so at least one can always see any distant probe.