Famous Names in Aerospace
This astronaut was the first person to walk on the Moon, in 1969.
Who is Neil Armstrong?
This upward force is what keeps an airplane in the air.
What is lift?
This law of motion - 'for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction' - explains how a rocket produces thrust.
What is Newton's Third Law?
This country launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, in 1957.
What is the Soviet Union?
This reusable NASA spacecraft flew missions from 1981 to 2011, launching like a rocket and landing like a glider.
What is the Space Shuttle?
She became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932 before her mysterious disappearance in 1937.
Who is Amelia Earhart?
This force acts opposite to an aircraft's motion through the air, and thrust must overcome it to keep the plane moving forward.
What is drag?
Because they carry their own oxidizer on board (non air breathing), rockets - unlike jet engines - are able to operate here.
What is space/ a vacuum?
This U.S government agency was created in 1958, largely in response to the early Space Race.
What is NASA?
This supersonic passenger airliner, retired in 2003, could cross the Atlantic from New York to London in under four hours.
What is the Concorde?
This NASA astronaut was the second person to walk on the Moon, stepping out shortly after Neil Armstrong during Apollo 11.
Who is Buzz Aldrin?
This phenomenon happens when airflow seperates from the wing at too steep an angle of attack, causing a sudden loss of lift.
What is a stall?
The general term for the hot gas expelled out of the back of a rocket engine that pushes the rocket forward.
What is exhaust propellant/thrust?
This 1969 NASA mission was the first to sucessfully land astronauts on the Moon.
What is Apollo 11?
This Space rocket system is designed to be fully and rapidly reuseable, with both its booster and upper stage able to land themselves?
What is Starship?
First named the "Wright Company" in 1909, this pair of brothers designed and flew the world's first successful motor-operated airplane in 1903.
Who are Orville and Wilbur Wright?
This angle, between the wing and teh oncoming air, is a major factor in how much lift a wing produces.
Whta is the angle of attack?
This is the name for the point where a rocket sucessfully reaches space and releases its payload/satellite
What is orbit?
This 1970 mission aborted its Moon landing after an oxygen tank exploded en route, and the crew returned safely to earth.
What is Apollo 13?
Shaped like a flying wing with no tail, this aircraft is flown by the U.S. Air Force during long range stealth missions.
What is the B-2?
This NASA mathematician calculated Mercury mission trajectories and was portrayed in the movie "Hidden Figures."
Who is Katherine Johnson?
This principle (equation) states that faster-moving air has lower pressure, often cited as part of how lift is generated.
What is Bernoulli's principle/equation?
This term describes the minimum speed an object needs to completely escape a planet's gravity without further propulsion.
What is escape velocity?
This Soviet cosmonaut became the first human to travel to space, in 1961.
Who is Yuri Gagarin?
Piloted by Chuck Yeager, this experimental rocket plane became the first crewed aircraft to break the sound barrier in level flight, in 1947.
What is the Bell X-1?