Key Events
When was the first manned landing on the Moon? (Hint: American)
July 20th, 1969
What navigational technology was developed for use in satellites during the Space Race? (Hint: name is an acronym)
GPS
Who was the first man to step on the moon?
Neil Armstrong
What event marked the informal "end" of the Space Race?
Apollo 11 Moon landing
What major conflict spurred on the start of the Space Race? (Hint: two major superpowers were directly involved)
The Cold War
When was the first man-made satellite launched into space?
October 4th, 1957
What was the first man-made satellite launched into space?
What is the name of the first large living animal sent into space?
Laika (the dog)
What was NASA known as, prior to 1958?
When was the first human launched into space?
April 12th, 1961
Who was the first human launched into space? (Hint: Soviet pilot and cosmonaut)
Yuri Gagarin
What was the first live animal sent into space? (Hint: species of insect)
Fruit Flies
What did both the US and the Soviet Union intend to do during the Space Race to show off their military might and alleged superiority?
Detonating a nuclear bomb on the Moon (yes actually almost happened)
What object was accidentally blasted into space during the Pascal-B nuclear tests in 1957?
A manhole cover (or a 2,000lb steel plate)
When was Voyager 1 launched?
September 5th, 1977
The Space Race greatly accelerated the development of what technology? (Hint: it is very widely used and advanced today)
Computers (the Apollo missions were the first use of small computers. Prior to the missions, computers were room-sized objects.)
Who was the first American to orbit Earth?
John Glenn
How far is the Voyager 1 satellite from Earth? (Hint: currently, it is the furthest-from-Earth man-made object)
~15,000,000,000 miles, or ~172 AU
What operation followed WWII and led to the US and Soviet Union scrambling to capture German scientists, rocket components, and technology?
Operation Paperclip