Space Missions
First human in space
Yuri Gagarin
Force that keeps planets in orbit
Gravity
System that helps your phone find your location
GPS
First person to walk on the Moon
Neil Armstrong
Closest planet to the Sun
Mercury
First mission to land humans on the Moon
Apollo 11
Path that an object follows around a planet
Orbit
Chief designer and constructor of Sputnik 1
Sergei Korolev
American state space agency
NASA
Largest planet in the Solar System
Jupiter
Name of NASA’s current program to return humans to the Moon
Artemis
Time Earth takes to orbit the Sun
1 year
Global system of interconnected computer networks used worldwide
Internet
First human to perform a spacewalk
Alexei Leonov
Hottest planet in the Solar System
Venus
First reusable rocket developed by SpaceX
Falcon 9
Boundary often used to define the start of space (100 km)
Kármán line
Name of the first global satellite-based internet system developed by SpaceX
Starlink
First woman in space
Valentina Tereshkova
Planet with the strongest gravity in the Solar System
Jupiter
Space telescope launched in 1990 that transformed our view of the universe
Hubble Space Telescope
Speed needed to escape Earth’s gravity (approx.)
11.2 km/s
System used to collect and analyze geographic data
GIS
Nickname of Alan Shepard’s spacecraft
Mercury-Redstone 3 or Freedom 7
Planet that rotates on its side (extreme axial tilt)
Uranus
Name of the first privately developed spacecraft to carry astronauts to the ISS
Crew Dragon
Name of the galaxy closest to the Milky Way
Andromeda Galaxy
Mission that first captured an image of a black hole (project name)
Event Horizon Telescope
First American astronaut to orbit Earth
John Glenn
Term for a star that suddenly increases in brightness due to an explosion
Supernova