Space Exploration In Fact And Fiction Quiz

Answer: Jules Verne

Verne's late 19th-century novel of travel to the moon bears eerie similarities to what would ultimately become Project Apollo in the mid-20th century. He also wrote a sequel called 'Round the Moon'.

Answer: X-20

When first conceived by the Air Force in the late 1950's, the X-20 spaceplane would have been launched into orbit atop a Titan I ICBM. By the time the program was cancelled in 1963, it was slated to ride atop a Titan III satellite booster. X-20 was to be have been outfitted for multiple military-related missions.

Answer: 1967

On November 4, 1967, a Saturn V rocket launched the unmanned Apollo IV test flight. At the time of its launch, it was the most powerful rocket ever successfully flown.

Answer: Tracking and Data Relay Satellite

TDRS satellites allow mission controllers to maintain voice and data contact with the space shuttle and the International Space Station. They provide continuous coverage, eliminating the need for expensive ground and airborne tracking platforms.

Answer: Constitution

The only space shuttle orbiter built that was not rated for space travel, Enterprise's original name fell by the wayside, thanks to avid fans of the television series 'Star Trek'. Enterprise was used for approach and landing tests, as well as launch pad mating tests. It is now part of the National Air and Space Museum.

Answer: Kazakhstan

Baikonur Cosmodrome is located in central Kahzakstan, and has been the site of many Soviet and Russian manned space flights.

Answer: Scott Carpenter

Flying the Mercury capsule Aurora 7 in May, 1962, Carpenter was so entranced by being in space that he nearly didn't have enough fuel to get home. By firing his retrorockets three seconds late, he wound up missing his target landing zone. As a result of his antics, Carpenter never got a chance to fly in space again.

Answer: He didn't have a college degree.

Among the requirements for the original group of astronauts selected in 1959 was the holding of at least a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering or a related technical field. Though Yeager earned his stripes flying rocket planes like the X-1, he wasn't able to crack the astronaut corps.

Answer: 1960

On October 24, 1960, an R-16 ICBM, being readied for its first test flight, exploded on its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Military technicians and civilians, led by Rocket Forces commander Mitrofan Nedelin, had gone out to the rocket before it exploded to determine why it would not fire.

In all, 92 people died. Ironically, several men survived the explosion because they had retreated to an underground bunker for a smoke break just before the explosion.

Answer: Grumman

Better known for making the reliable F-14 Tomcat air superiority fighter, Grumman also built the fragile, bug-like lander that carried 12 Americans to the moon's surface.

Answer: French Guiana

A successful competitor to the US stable of expendable launch vehicles, Ariane rockets are launched from facilities at Kourou in French Guiana.

Answer: 'Silver Tower'

A technothriller author in the same vein as Tom Clancy, Stephen Coonts, and Larry Bond, Brown's 'Silver Tower' is the only one of his earliest works not featuring characters from his fictional Dreamland test facility.

Answer: Three days

Apollo astronauts covered the quarter-million mile journey in three days. So too, did the three men launched in the cannon shell in Jules Verne's novel 'From the Earth to the Moon'.

Answer: 1975

Apollo-Soyuz took place in July, 1975. It not only marked a milestone in space exploration, it also marked the last mission for the Apollo program.

Answer: Alexei Leonov

Leonov, who also served as the Soviet commander during Apollo-Soyuz in 1975, stepped outside the Voshkod II spacecraft in March 1965.

Answer: 'Salvage'

Between his blockbuster successes with 'The Andy Griffith Show' and 'Matlock', Griffith starred in a few less-than-stellar series. This one, where he played a Los Angeles junk dealer who had a dream of travelling into space, was on ABC for only one season. 'The Cape' starred Corbin Bernsen as a space shuttle astronaut, and was short-lived in syndication in the 1990's. 'Flying High' was a short-lived CBS comedy about flight attendants coping with life and bell bottoms in the 1970's.

Answer: Capsule depressurization on reentry

To make room for three cosmonauts on board the two-man Soyuz 11 spacecraft, the crew did not wear pressure suits during ascent or reentry. During the reentry, a valve stuck open, venting the crew's air supply into space. The three men on board were dead before their spacecraft landed.

Answer: Asteroid strike in Italy

The asteroid impact on Padua and Verona in Italy occurred, according to the book, on September 11, 2077. As a result, the Spaceguard program to detect inbound comets and asteroids was founded, and the first of the huge Rama spaceships that entered the solar system was spotted fifty years later.

Answer: Fred Haise

The lunar module pilot on the Apollo 13 mission, Haise paired up with future shuttle pilot Gordon Fullerton to do approach and landing tests with the shuttle Enterprise. Haise left the space program before the shuttle became operational.

Answer: McDonnell

The McDonnell Aircraft Company (later McDonnell Douglas and now part of Boeing) built the Mercury spacecraft and its bigger cousin Gemini. McDonnell was also one of the many contractors to work on the Saturn V moon rocket.