The Space Race (1957-1975) Trivia Word Search

Which NASA probe became the first spacecraft to successfully fly by another planet, Venus, in December 1962?

Who piloted Gemini 5 alongside Gordon Cooper on an eight-day endurance mission in 1965?

Besides Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, who was the third astronaut aboard Apollo 8, the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon?

What nickname was given to the first group of seven NASA astronauts selected in 1959?

Who became the second American in space aboard Liberty Bell 7, and later died in the 1967 Apollo 1 fire?

What was the name of the Soviet spacecraft that in October 1964 carried history's first three-person crew into orbit?

Who commanded Gemini 8, achieving the first-ever docking in space with an uncrewed target vehicle in March 1966?

Who piloted the Apollo 15 command module while Scott and Irwin explored the lunar surface in 1971?

Buzz Aldrin's official first name, rarely used publicly, was what?

Who became the second human in space and the first to spend a full day in orbit, aboard Vostok 2 in August 1961?

What was the name of the uncrewed target vehicle Gemini 8 docked with in the first-ever docking in space?

Who replaced the original command module pilot just days before Apollo 13's launch in April 1970?

Which US robotic probe program sent back the first close-up television images of the Moon before crashing onto its surface in 1964?

Who commanded Apollo 9, the first crewed test flight of the lunar module, in March 1969?

Who set a long-standing record for the longest solo orbital spaceflight, aboard Vostok 5 in June 1963?

Along with Alan Shepard and Stuart Roosa, who was the third astronaut on Apollo 14?

Who piloted Vostok 4, flying in tandem with Vostok 3 in August 1962?

What was the name of the Mercury capsule that carried Alan Shepard on America's first spaceflight in May 1961?

What was the name of the spacecraft that carried Yuri Gagarin into orbit as the first human in space?

Who piloted the Apollo 17 command module during the final crewed Moon landing mission in 1972?

In 1968, these slow-moving reptiles aboard the Soviet probe Zond 5 became the first Earth creatures to circle the Moon and return alive.

Who became the first American to orbit Earth, aboard Mercury-Atlas 6 in February 1962?

Who commanded Vostok 3 in August 1962, part of the first simultaneous flight of two crewed spacecraft?

What is the name of the Soviet launch site in Kazakhstan from which Sputnik 1 and Yuri Gagarin's flight were launched?

Who performed a difficult, exhausting spacewalk during Gemini 9A in June 1966?

What was the name of the first successful US satellite, launched in January 1958 shortly after Sputnik?

This German-born rocket engineer, once a designer of a WWII missile, became chief architect of NASA's Saturn V rocket.

Neil Armstrong's famous first words on the Moon called it 'one small step for man, one giant leap for _ _ _ _ _ _ _.'

What was the call sign of the lunar module that carried Armstrong and Aldrin down to the Moon's surface in July 1969?

Before any American flew in space, a chimpanzee completed a suborbital Mercury test flight in January 1961. What was the chimp's name?

Who piloted Mercury-Atlas 8 in 1962, later becoming the only astronaut to fly Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions?

One of the three Voskhod 1 crew members later died in 1967 as the first spaceflight fatality, aboard Soyuz 1. Who was he?

Besides commander Pete Conrad and pilot Richard Gordon, who was the third astronaut on Apollo 12, and later walked on the Moon?

Along with Grissom and White, which astronaut died in the January 1967 Apollo 1 launch pad fire?

Two Soviet dogs, Strelka and another one, became the first animals to orbit Earth and return home safely in 1960. Name the other dog.

Who piloted the Apollo 11 command module while Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the Moon?

What was the name of the Soviet probe series whose second mission became the first human-made object to reach the Moon, in 1959?

Besides commander Wally Schirra, name one of the two other astronauts aboard Apollo 7, NASA's first crewed Apollo flight.

Sputnik 1 was launched to coincide with a global scientific effort called the International Geophysical _ _ _ _.

Early US space capsules ended their missions by parachuting down into this vast body of water, unlike Soviet landings on land.

What nickname was given to the battery-powered vehicle first driven on the Moon during Apollo 15?

What was the name of the powerful rocket family, still among the most powerful ever built, that launched Apollo toward the Moon?

Instruments aboard Explorer 1 in 1958 discovered bands of radiation around Earth, later named for this American scientist.

What was the call sign of Apollo 11's command module, which stayed in lunar orbit while the lander touched down?

Who piloted Gemini 11 alongside Pete Conrad, setting a crewed orbital altitude record in September 1966?

Who was pilot of Gemini 7 and commander of Gemini 12 before leading the ill-fated Apollo 13?

Who commanded Gemini 7, setting a 14-day spaceflight endurance record in December 1965?

What was the name of the dog launched into orbit aboard Sputnik 2 in November 1957, the first animal to orbit Earth?

What is the common English term for an astronaut's 'extravehicular activity' performed outside the spacecraft?

Who solved earlier spacewalk exhaustion problems with an efficient EVA during Gemini 12 in November 1966?

Which Mercury astronaut was grounded by a heart condition, only reaching space in 1975 aboard Apollo-Soyuz?

Who piloted the Apollo 16 command module while Young and Duke explored the Descartes Highlands in 1972?

Who piloted Mercury-Atlas 9 in 1963, the final and longest Mercury mission, flying solo for over a day?

What was the nickname of Apollo 10's lunar module, named after a famous cartoon beagle?

What was the name of the world's first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957?

Apollo 12 astronauts landed near, and retrieved parts from, an earlier robotic Moon lander from which NASA program?

Apollo 13's famous message about a problem was radioed to NASA's Mission Control, based in which US city?

What was the name of the Soviet spacecraft that docked with an American Apollo capsule in July 1975?

Which chimpanzee orbited Earth aboard a Mercury capsule in November 1961, paving the way for John Glenn's flight the next year?

Who commanded Gemini 6A during its historic December 1965 rendezvous with Gemini 7 in orbit?

Who became the first human in space, launched by the Soviet Union on April 12, 1961?

Who performed history's first spacewalk from Voskhod 2 in March 1965?

Later politicians invoked a 'Sputnik _ _ _ _ _ _' to describe a sudden shock that jolts a nation into action.

The Space Race was primarily a Cold War rivalry between the United States and which other superpower?

Besides Lovell and Swigert, who was the third crew member of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission?

In October 1959, the Soviet probe Luna 3 photographed which part of the Moon for the first time, one never visible from Earth?

Who piloted Gemini 3 alongside Gus Grissom, the first crewed flight of the Gemini program, in March 1965?

Besides commander John Young, who else walked on the Moon during the Apollo 16 mission in 1972?

What term does Russia use for its trained space travelers, equivalent to the American word 'astronaut'?

Kept secret and known only as 'the Chief Designer' during his lifetime, this man led the Soviet Union's early rocket program.

Who piloted Mercury-Atlas 7, becoming the second American to complete an orbital spaceflight, in 1962?

Apollo 10's command module was nicknamed after Snoopy's owner in the Peanuts comic strip: Charlie _ _ _ _ _.

Which Apollo 17 astronaut was the first professional geologist to walk on the Moon?

Florida's Cape _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, beside Kennedy Space Center, was the launch site for Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.

Who performed the first American spacewalk during Gemini 4 in June 1965?

The first woman in space, Soviet cosmonaut Tereshkova, flew aboard Vostok 6 in June 1963. What was her first name?

What sport did Alan Shepard famously play on the lunar surface during Apollo 14, using an improvised club?