Quiz of the Day
Space Race
Sunday, 12 April 2026
Yuri's Night — 65th anniversary of first human spaceflight, space milestones
1. On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. How long did his flight last?
- 3 hours
- 48 minutes
- 108 minutes
- 24 hours
Gagarin ejected from the capsule at 7 km altitude and parachuted to Earth separately — the Soviets kept this secret for years because FAI rules required pilots to land with their craft.
2. Which US President committed America to landing on the Moon before the end of the 1960s?
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- Dwight Eisenhower
- Richard Nixon
- John F. Kennedy
Kennedy's famous 1962 speech at Rice University declared 'We choose to go to the Moon... not because it is easy, but because it is hard.' He did not live to see it achieved.
3. What was the name of the Soviet space programme that put the first satellite in orbit?
- Vostok
- Soyuz
- Sputnik
- Cosmos
Sputnik 1 was only the size of a beach ball (58 cm diameter) and weighed 83.6 kg. Its 'beep-beep' radio signal could be heard by anyone with a shortwave radio.
4. Who was the first American to orbit the Earth?
- Scott Carpenter
- John Glenn
- Alan Shepard
- Gus Grissom
John Glenn orbited Earth three times on February 20, 1962. He later returned to space in 1998 at age 77, making him the oldest person to fly in space at that time.
5. What was the first living creature sent into orbit by the Soviet Union?
- A monkey
- A chimpanzee
- A dog
- A cat
Laika the dog launched aboard Sputnik 2 in November 1957. Sadly, there was no plan to return her safely, and she perished within hours from stress and overheating.
6. The Space Race was primarily a competition between which two nations?
- USSR & France
- USA & China
- USA & USSR
- USA & UK
The Space Race was a key front in the Cold War, with both superpowers using space achievements as propaganda tools to demonstrate technological and ideological superiority.
7. What year did Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the Moon?
- 1968
- 1969
- 1967
- 1970
An estimated 600 million people — roughly one-fifth of the world's population at the time — watched the Moon landing live on television.
8. Who was the chief rocket engineer behind NASA's Saturn V rocket?
- Robert Goddard
- Wernher von Braun
- Sergei Korolev
- Hermann Oberth
Von Braun was a former Nazi rocket scientist who developed the V-2 missile during WWII. He was recruited by the US under Operation Paperclip and became instrumental in the Apollo programme.
9. What was the first spacecraft to perform a successful soft landing on the Moon?
- Apollo 11
- Ranger 7
- Surveyor 1
- Luna 9
The Soviet Luna 9 soft-landed on February 3, 1966 and transmitted the first photographs from the lunar surface, proving that the Moon's surface could support a spacecraft.
10. Who performed the first spacewalk (EVA) in 1965?
- Buzz Aldrin
- Alexei Leonov
- Ed White
- Yuri Gagarin
Leonov's spacesuit inflated so much in the vacuum that he couldn't fit back through the airlock. He had to partially depressurise his suit — risking decompression sickness — to squeeze back in.
11. Which Apollo mission had to abort its Moon landing due to an oxygen tank explosion?
- Apollo 1
- Apollo 11
- Apollo 15
- Apollo 13
The crew survived by using the lunar module as a lifeboat. Commander Jim Lovell's famous understatement — 'Houston, we've had a problem' — became one of the most quoted lines in space history.
12. What was the name of the joint US-Soviet space mission in 1975 that symbolised détente?
- Apollo-Soyuz
- Mercury-Cosmos
- Shuttle-Mir
- Gemini-Vostok
American and Soviet spacecraft docked in orbit and crews exchanged handshakes and gifts. The mission effectively ended the Space Race and paved the way for future cooperation on the ISS.
13. Sergei Korolev was the secret mastermind behind the Soviet space programme. Why was he kept anonymous?
- The Soviets feared assassination
- He had a criminal record
- He was in witness protection
- He was a foreign citizen
Korolev's identity was such a closely guarded state secret that he was only publicly identified after his death in 1966. He had previously spent six years in Soviet prison camps.
14. What did astronauts leave on the Moon's surface that is still used by scientists today?
- A radio transmitter
- A weather station
- A seismograph
- A laser reflector
Scientists fire lasers at the reflectors from Earth to measure the Moon's distance with millimetre precision. The Moon is drifting away from Earth at about 3.8 cm per year.
15. How many times did the Soviet Union attempt to build a Moon rocket to rival Saturn V?
- Once
- Twice
- Four times
- Never
The Soviet N1 rocket exploded on all four test launches between 1969 and 1972. The programme was scrapped in 1974, and the Soviets denied its existence for decades.