July 20, 1969, marks the 50th anniversary of U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin’s historic walk on the moon. “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” Armstrong famously said, as an estimated 530 million viewers worldwide watched on their televisions. The landmark moon landing was just one of many events that affected the Space Race, the Cold War competition between the United States and the then Soviet Union in the area of space exploration.
The quiz below, from the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio, provides an opportunity for you to test your knowledge of the moon landing and the larger Space Race.
1. The Soviet Union was the first to launch an artificial satellite into space. In what year did this occur?
A: 1955
B: 1957
C: 1963
D: 1967
2. Who was the first person who went into space?
A: Alan Shepard
B: Alexey Leonov
C: John Glenn
D: Yuri Gagarin
3. What was the name of the United States’ first manned mission into space?
A: Voyager 1
B: Apollo 11
C: Freedom 7
D: Pioneer 10
4. Under what president and in what year was the National Aeronautics and Space Administration created?
A. Harry S. Truman in 1952
B. Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958
C. John F. Kennedy in 1961
D. Lyndon B. Johnson in 1963
5. Which president said: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win?”
A: John F. Kennedy
B: Richard Nixon
C: Lyndon B. Johnson
D: Harry S. Truman
6. Which of the words below are unrelated to the first moon-landing mission?
A: “The Eagle has landed”
B: “I don’t feel like a giant. I feel very, very small”
C: “Houston, we have a problem”
D: “We came in peace for all mankind”
7. In 1957, the Soviet Union sent a dog into space. What was the dog’s name?
A: Astro
B: Borzoi
C: Comet
D: Laika
8. In which state is the Kennedy Space Center, NASA’s primary launch site, located?
A. Texas
B. Maryland
C. Florida
D. Alabama
9. Who was the first woman in space?
A: Sally Ride
B: Valentina Tereshkova
C: Peggy Whitson
D: Svetlana Savitskaya
10. By the 1980s, the United States was collaborating with other countries to build an inhabitable International Space Station. Which of the following countries is not involved in the ISS?
A: Australia
B: Japan
C: Russia
D: Canada
Answers: 1-B, 2-D, 3-C, 4-B, 5-A, 6-C, 7-D, 8-C, 9-B, 10-A
