Hard NASA Turns Fifty Quiz / Test | Specialized History

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. This type of spin stabilized spacecraft made successful explorations of the Sun, Earth's Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus.

Answer: Pioneer

The Pioneer rocket attempted three failed lunar missions before being diverted for use in other missions, including mapping the interplanetary magnetic field, monitoring solar flares, flying by Jupiter and Saturn and returning information that would be crucial in the later design of the Voyager probe.

2. Previous to the creation of NASA, Explorer I was launched into orbit by the United States. Who was responsible for the project?

Answer: U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency

Explorer 1 became the first U.S. satellite when it was successfully launched on January 31, 1958. It operated until May of that year, and orbited Earth until 1970. The U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency oversaw the project, utilizing a rocket designed by Dr. Wernher von Braun and a data device designed by The Jet Propulsion Laboratory of Cal Tech.

The result of Explorer I was that Dr. James Van Allen of the University of Iowa initiated the discovery of what would later become known as the Van Allen Radiation Belts.

3. The Viking missions to Mars were to involve orbiters and landers that took how long to reach their destination?

Answer: ten to eleven months

Viking 1 was launched on August 20, 1975 and arrived at Mars on June 19, 1976. Viking 2 was launched September 9, 1975 and entered Mars orbit on August 7, 1976. The Viking mission resulted in many images of Mars' surface, analyses of surface samples, and atmospheric, meteorologic and seismologic data. Viking I communicated to Earth for 7 years, Viking II for five.

4. For all of the splash that Skylab made, how long was it manned by NASA?

Answer: twenty four weeks

Launched in 1973, the purpose of Skylab was to explore working conditions for humans in prolonged weightlessness. Three separate crews manned Skylab for 28, 59 and 84 days in succession during its brief utility. Skylab was only manned for a span of eight months. One of the greatest contributions of Skylab was as a Solar observatory.

5. The space probe 'Galileo' was launched from the cargo bay of Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1989, traveled approximately 2.8 billion miles, and crashed into what, ending its mission?

Answer: Jupiter

The Galileo spacecraft traveled through the solar system for fourteen years, sending back new, fascinating information about asteroids (Gaspra and Ida and its moon Dactyl); comets (Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashing into Jupiter); and Jupiter (rings, moons and atmosphere).

6. Everyone is familiar with Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong, who was the first to set foot on the moon. Others will recall the transmission of the ill fated Apollo 13, "Houston, we have a problem". How many Apollo flights actually made safe lunar landings?

Answer: 6

Apollo missions 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 made safe lunar landings to make observations of soil, seismic activity, topography and solar wind. Apollo 13 held the world spellbound as desperate engineers scrambled to bring the crew safely home after the explosion of an oxygen canister.

7. If you have "the Right Stuff", you can spot the astronaut who was NOT one of the "Mercury Seven" astronauts.

Answer: Young

While John Young was an astronaut for NASA from 1962, he was not selected for the Mercury program along with Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton. Young would go on to be the first Space Shuttle Commander for STS-1 aboard the SS Columbia. Young was an Apollo astronaut, flying in Apollo 10 around the moon, and walking on the moon from Apollo 16.

8. What was the name of the Space Mission that bridged the gap between John Glenn's flight and the Apollo space mission?

Answer: Gemini

After U.S. President Kennedy announced his intention to put a man on the moon "before the end of the decade", it was no longer enough to have put a man in orbit around the earth. NASA needed to hastily find answers to problems of prolonged space travel such as increased flight duration, vehicle maneuvering, reentry methods, the effect of prolonged weightlessness and psychological data. Gemini, the twin was a reference to having two astronauts in a very close space aboard the launch vehicle.

9. Perhaps the most noted Space Shuttle mission was the Challenger tragedy of January 28, 1986. Had the tragedy not occurred, what was the mission for the Challenger STS-51L?

Answer: all are correct

Due to cold weather, failure in the O-ring of the right SRB (solid rocket booster) caused an explosion seventy three seconds into the flight that cost the lives of all seven astronauts aboard, including Christa McAulliffe, the first teacher in space. The Spartan satellite was a free flying satellite that carried out remote astronomical experiments before retrieval, and had been deployed on previous flights.

The flight payload also included the CHAMP (Comet Halley Active Monitoring Program).

10. By the time the Space Shuttle Atlantis docked for the first time with Russia's MIR Space Station in 1995, the two vehicles were directly above what famous geographical feature?

Answer: Lake Baikal

When Commander Hoot Gibson docked Atlantis with MIR for re-supply and personnel transfer, the two vehicles, together with the Soyuz capsule already attached had the distinction of being the largest ever spacecraft ever in orbit. The delicate approach brought the massive vehicles together at a rate of one inch per minute! When the connection was made, they were 216 nautical miles above 53.5� N 108.2� E (Russia's Lake Baikal), and off by less than 1" and half a degree!

Source: Author sidnobls

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NASA Turns Fifty Trivia Quiz

U.S. President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law on July 29, 1958, creating NASA. Here are questions on the first fifty years of NASA missions.

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