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50 free SpaceX trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
SpaceX was three failed launches from bankruptcy in 2008. A fourth Falcon 1 reached orbit from a Pacific atoll, NASA signed a $1.6 billion cargo contract that December, and the company went on to land orbital boosters on barges, fly astronauts from Florida again, put a Tesla Roadster into orbit around the Sun and build the largest rocket ever flown in a Texas field. These 50 questions cover the whole story: the Mars Oasis idea and the trips to Moscow, Omelek Island, the Merlin and Kestrel engines, the first drone-ship landing on Of Course I Still Love You, the CRS-7 strut and the AMOS-6 fireball, Demo-2's Endeavour, Inspiration4 and the first private spacewalk on Polaris Dawn, Starlink's 60-satellite batches, Starship's stainless steel and tower catches, Gwynne Shotwell and the 2026 IPO. The expert tier asks about RazakSAT, the Culture novels behind the drone-ship names, the 5D disc in Starman's glovebox and the worm logo. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even when you miss. Play solo or print it for a space night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which year was SpaceX founded?
2002
Early staff were hired from TRW and Boeing into a warehouse in El Segundo, California.
Q 02The Falcon rocket family is named after a spacecraft from which film franchise?
Star Wars
The Millennium Falcon lent its name; the Merlin and Kestrel engines are birds of prey.
Q 03How many Falcon 1 launches failed before the rocket first reached orbit?
Three
Tesla financing had also failed, leaving Musk and both companies near bankruptcy at the same time.
Q 04From which Pacific atoll were all Falcon 1 launches conducted?
Kwajalein
The pad was on Omelek Island at the Reagan Test Site in the Marshall Islands.
Q 05Falcon 1's only commercial payload, on its final flight in 2009, came from which country?
Malaysia
RazakSAT rode the fifth and last Falcon 1 in July 2009 before the rocket was retired.
Q 06Which NASA contract, worth $1.6 billion in December 2008, is credited with saving SpaceX?
Commercial Resupply Services
It bought 12 cargo flights to the ISS; Gwynne Shotwell was made president for negotiating it.
Q 07What did Musk's 2001 'Oasis' space project propose to do?
Land a greenhouse on Mars
He tried to buy a Russian Dnepr rocket for it before deciding to build rockets himself.
Q 08Which future NASA administrator joined Musk on a rocket-buying trip to Moscow?
Michael Griffin
Griffin later declined the job of SpaceX chief engineer.
Q 09How many Merlin engines power the first stage of a Falcon 9?
Nine
The upper stage uses a single vacuum-optimised Merlin; Falcon Heavy's three cores carry 27.
Q 10What propellants does the Merlin engine burn?
Liquid oxygen and RP-1
RP-1 is a refined kerosene; the Starship-era Raptor switched to methane.
Q 11Which engine powered Falcon 1's second stage?
Kestrel
It was a pressure-fed engine using the same LOX/RP-1 propellants as Merlin.
Q 12What are the small thrusters used for the capsule's reaction control called?
Draco
Eight larger SuperDracos give Crew Dragon its launch-escape capability.
Q 13What fuel does the Raptor engine burn alongside its oxidiser?
Liquid methane
Raptor is a full-flow staged combustion engine first flown in 2019 on the Starhopper test vehicle.
Q 14In which year did a Falcon 9 first stage first land successfully after an orbital launch?
Q 21What is the mannequin in the driver's seat of the space-bound Roadster called?
Starman
He is named after a David Bowie song, and the car's stereo was set to loop 'Space Oddity'.
Q 22A copy of which novel sits in the Roadster's glovebox, with a 'DON'T PANIC!' sign on the dash?
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
A towel is aboard too; Asimov's Foundation trilogy rides along on a 5D optical disc.
Q 23What phrase is printed on the Roadster's circuit board?
Made on Earth by humans
A plaque under the car lists the employees who worked on the project.
2015
Flight 20 touched down at Cape Canaveral that December, a first for an orbital-class booster.
Q 15What was the name of the drone ship for the first at-sea booster landing in April 2016?
Of Course I Still Love You
The booster had just sent the CRS-8 cargo Dragon toward the ISS.
Q 16SpaceX's drone ships take their names from spaceships in novels by which author?
Iain M. Banks
The names come from the Culture series of science fiction novels.
Q 17Which satellite flew on the first reuse of an orbital-class booster in March 2017?
SES-10
The stage was recovered again afterwards, the first landing of a reused orbital rocket.
Q 18What caused the June 2015 CRS-7 failure two minutes into flight?
A failed steel strut
The strut held a helium pressure vessel that broke free and over-pressurised the tank.
Q 19Which $200 million satellite was destroyed when a Falcon 9 exploded on the pad in 2016?
AMOS-6
It happened during propellant loading for a static fire, grounding SpaceX for four months.
Q 20Falcon Heavy's first flight in February 2018 carried what dummy payload?
A Tesla Roadster
Musk had promised the 'silliest thing we can imagine' for the risky debut.
Q 24How many Merlin engines fire at liftoff on a Falcon Heavy?
27
Three modified Falcon 9 cores are strapped together.
Q 25Which two NASA astronauts flew on Crew Demo-2 in May 2020?
Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken
It was the first crewed orbital launch from US soil since the last Shuttle flight in 2011.
Q 26What name was given to the capsule flown on Demo-2?
Endeavour
Its water landing was the first splashdown by astronauts since 1975.
Q 27The Demo-2 Falcon 9 revived which retired NASA logo?
The 'worm'
The red wordmark had not been used officially since 1992.
Q 28From which launch pad did Demo-2 lift off?
Kennedy LC-39A
SpaceX signed a 20-year lease on the historic Apollo and Shuttle pad in 2014.
Q 29Who commanded Inspiration4, the first all-private orbital spaceflight, in 2021?
Jared Isaacman
The Shift4 Payments CEO flew with Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski and pilot Sian Proctor.
Q 30Inspiration4 raised money for which Memphis institution?
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Crew member Hayley Arceneaux was a former patient and cancer survivor.