Space exploration trivia questions and answers

How to run it

1. Read the explanations out loud. The stories behind the answers, like Leonov letting air out of his suit, are what people repeat on the way home.
2. After question 10, Voyager 1, ask the room how long its radio signal takes to reach Earth. The answer is almost a day, and nobody guesses that high.
3. Questions 16 to 20 are app only. Question 20, the number of people who have walked on the Moon, is the tie-breaker, and it will change once Artemis lands a crew.

Questions and answers

1. 1Who was the first human to travel into space, in April 1961?Easy

   • AAlan Shepard
   • BYuri Gagarin
   • CJohn Glenn
   • DNeil Armstrong
   Reveal answer

   B. Yuri Gagarin

   Gagarin orbited Earth once in Vostok 1 on 12 April 1961, a flight of 108 minutes. Alan Shepard became the first American in space three weeks later, on a short up-and-down flight.

2. 2The first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, was called what?Easy

   • AExplorer 1
   • BVostok 1
   • CSputnik 1
   • DLuna 1
   Reveal answer

   C. Sputnik 1

   Sputnik 1 went up on 4 October 1957 and circled Earth about every 96 minutes, beeping on the radio for three weeks. The shock pushed the United States to set up NASA the next year.

3. 3Which Apollo mission landed the first people on the Moon?Easy

   • AApollo 8
   • BApollo 10
   • CApollo 11
   • DApollo 13
   Reveal answer

   C. Apollo 11

   Apollo 11 landed in the Sea of Tranquility on 20 July 1969. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent about two and a half hours outside while Michael Collins orbited above in the command module.

4. 4Who was the second person to walk on the Moon?Easy

   • AMichael Collins
   • BPete Conrad
   • CAlan Bean
   • DBuzz Aldrin
   Reveal answer

   D. Buzz Aldrin

   Aldrin followed Armstrong down the ladder about 19 minutes later. Michael Collins never landed, and Pete Conrad and Alan Bean were the third and fourth, on Apollo 12 in November 1969.

5. 5Who was the first woman in space, in 1963?Easy

   • AValentina Tereshkova
   • BSally Ride
   • CSvetlana Savitskaya
   • DMae Jemison
   Reveal answer

   A. Valentina Tereshkova

   Tereshkova flew alone on Vostok 6 and orbited Earth 48 times in nearly three days. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space twenty years later, in 1983.

6. 6Which space telescope, launched in 1990, is named after the astronomer whose observations showed that the universe is expanding?Easy

   • AKepler
   • BHubble
   • CSpitzer
   • DChandra
   Reveal answer

   B. Hubble

   Hubble went up on the space shuttle Discovery in April 1990. A flaw in its mirror was fixed by astronauts in 1993, and it has been serviced five times in all.

7. 7In 2021, the Ingenuity helicopter made the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. Which planet?Easy

   • AVenus
   • BMercury
   • CJupiter
   • DMars
   Reveal answer

   D. Mars

   Ingenuity flew on 19 April 2021 after arriving with the Perseverance rover. It was built for five test flights and ended up making 72 before a rotor broke in January 2024.

8. 8Who was the first American to orbit Earth, in February 1962?Medium

   • AJohn Glenn
   • BAlan Shepard
   • CGus Grissom
   • DNeil Armstrong
   Reveal answer

   A. John Glenn

   Glenn circled Earth three times in Friendship 7. He went back to space in 1998 on the shuttle Discovery at the age of 77, the oldest person to fly in space at the time.

9. 9Which NASA rover landed in Gale Crater on Mars in August 2012?Medium

   • ASpirit
   • BOpportunity
   • CCuriosity
   • DSojourner
   Reveal answer

   C. Curiosity

   Curiosity came down on a sky crane, a rocket-powered platform that lowered it on cables. It is the size of a small car and was still working more than a decade later.

10. 10Which spacecraft, launched in 1977, was the first human-made object to reach interstellar space?Medium

    • AVoyager 1
    • BPioneer 10
    • CVoyager 2
    • DNew Horizons
    Reveal answer

    A. Voyager 1

    Voyager 1 crossed into interstellar space in August 2012. It is the most distant human-made object, and it carries a golden record of sounds and pictures from Earth.

11. 11Which spacecraft made the first close fly-by of Pluto, in July 2015?Medium

    • ACassini
    • BGalileo
    • CJuno
    • DNew Horizons
    Reveal answer

    D. New Horizons

    New Horizons left Earth in 2006, when Pluto was still called a planet, and took nine and a half years to get there. Its pictures showed a heart-shaped plain of nitrogen ice.

12. 12Which mission orbited Saturn for 13 years before it was steered into the planet in 2017?Medium

    • ACassini
    • BGalileo
    • CJuno
    • DMagellan
    Reveal answer

    A. Cassini

    Cassini arrived in 2004 and dropped the Huygens probe onto the moon Titan in 2005. It was sent into Saturn's atmosphere on purpose so it could never crash into a moon that might hold life.

13. 13In 2020, which company became the first private firm to carry astronauts to the International Space Station?Medium

    • ABlue Origin
    • BSpaceX
    • CBoeing
    • DVirgin Galactic
    Reveal answer

    B. SpaceX

    Crew Dragon Demo-2 carried Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley into orbit on 30 May 2020 and docked the next day. It was the first crewed launch from US soil since the last shuttle flight in 2011.

14. 14Which Apollo mission returned safely after an oxygen tank exploded on the way to the Moon in 1970?Hard

    • AApollo 12
    • BApollo 13
    • CApollo 14
    • DApollo 15
    Reveal answer

    B. Apollo 13

    The crew used the lunar module as a lifeboat and looped around the Moon to get home. The line Houston, we've had a problem came from Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert.

15. 15In 2023, which country became the first to land a spacecraft near the Moon's south pole?Hard

    • AChina
    • BJapan
    • CIndia
    • DRussia
    Reveal answer

    C. India

    Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander touched down on 23 August 2023 and released the Pragyan rover. India became the fourth country to land softly on the Moon, after the Soviet Union, the United States and China.

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Questions about this template

Sources

Every answer shown here was checked against two sources, listed below. Links last checked 3 November 2026.

1. Yuri Gagarin - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
2. Vostok 1 - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
3. Sputnik 1 - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
4. 65 Years Ago: Sputnik Ushers in the Space Age - NASAnasa.gov
5. Apollo 11 - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
6. Apollo 11 - NASAnasa.gov
7. Buzz Aldrin - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
8. Apollo 12 - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
9. Valentina Tereshkova - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
10. Vostok 6 - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
11. Hubble Space Telescope - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
12. Hubble Space Telescope - NASA Sciencescience.nasa.gov
13. Ingenuity (helicopter) - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
14. Ingenuity Mars Helicopter - NASA Sciencescience.nasa.gov
15. John Glenn - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
16. Mercury-Atlas 6 - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
17. Curiosity (rover) - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
18. Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity Rover - NASA Sciencescience.nasa.gov
19. Voyager 1 - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
20. Voyager - NASA Sciencescience.nasa.gov
21. New Horizons - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
22. New Horizonsscience.nasa.gov
23. Cassini-Huygens - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
24. Cassini-Huygens - NASA Sciencescience.nasa.gov
25. Crew Dragon Demo-2 - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
26. NASA Astronauts Launch from America in Historic Test Flight of SpaceX Crew Dragon - NASAnasa.gov
27. Apollo 13 - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
28. Apollo 13 - NASAnasa.gov
29. Chandrayaan-3 - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
30. Chandrayaan-3isro.gov.in