Haiku In Space Trivia Quiz

Answer: Vostok 1

The former Soviet Union set the bar for human spaceflight on April 12, 1961 as Soviet Air Force pilot Yuri Gagarin rode Vostok 1 into orbit. Gagarin was the first human in space and the first to orbit the Earth, completing one orbit. Gagarin climbed out of his capsule and parachuted to Earth because Russian engineers were afraid that the landing would be too rough, a design issue that would not be corrected until the Voskhod series of spacecraft were constructed.

Answer: Freedom 7

America's answer to Yuri Gagarin's historic first flight was named Freedom 7, with Alan Shepard at the controls on May 5, 1961. Each of the Mercury flights was dubbed with the number 7 to honor the team of 7 astronauts chosen to fly them. Shepard's suborbital hop averaged 8,282 kilometers per hour at an altitude of about 187 kilometers. The entire flight lasted only 15 minutes.

Answer: Liberty Bell 7

Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom's craft Liberty Bell 7 performed flawlessly during its short ride into space on July 21, 1961. However, upon splashdown, a technical malfunction caused the explosive bolts on the hatch to fire unexpectedly, causing the spacecraft to flood and sink in the Atlantic Ocean and necessitating Grissom's rescue from the water. Grissom would later lose his life along with astronauts Roger Chaffee and Ed White aboard Apollo 1 in 1967.

Answer: Vostok 2

Russian cosmonaut Gherman Titov rode Vostok 2 into orbit on August 6, 1961. Flying a mission of 25 hours 18 minutes in length, Titov was the first to sleep in space and the first to suffer from space sickness. Like Gagarin, Titov also parachuted to Earth at the end of the mission.

Answer: Friendship 7

US Marine Corps Major John H. Glenn Jr. rode Friendship 7 into orbit on February 20, 1962, completing three orbits before being forced to return early due to a technical problem with his spacecraft. Ground controllers believed that Glenn's landing bag had deployed in orbit, rendering the fiery return to Earth dangerous and possibly endangering Glenn's life.

However, Friendship 7 returned without incident and Glenn became a national hero. Glenn was later elected to the US Senate and flew on Space Shuttle mission STS-95.

Answer: Aurora 7

M. Scott Carpenter flew Aurora 7 on May 24, 1962, also completing three orbits. The flight lasted just under 5 hours. Carpenter overshot the recovery zone by over 250 miles during reentry due to a targeting malfunction. Donald K. (Deke) Slayton, another of the "Original 7" Mercury astronauts, was originally scheduled to fly this mission, but was grounded due to a cardiac arrhythmia discovered during centrifuge training. Slayton would not fly into space until 1972 aboard the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

Answer: Faith 7

L. Gordon Cooper flew Faith 7 on May 24, 1963, completing 22 orbits in over 34 hours, at the time the longest American space mission to date. The obsolete Mercury capsule, soon to be replaced by the Gemini series of US spacecraft, had to be extensively modified to support a mission of this length. Cooper was the first American to send back television pictures from space.

In spite of various technical malfunctions with Faith 7's guidance system, Cooper landed only 4 miles from the recovery vessel, the closest any Mercury astronaut ever got.

Answer: Vostok 5

Valery F. Bykovsky piloted Vostok 5 on June 14, 1963 for an incredible 5 days, the longest flight duration for any single cosmonaut. Vostok 5 ended up in a lower orbit than planned, requiring that the original 8 day mission plan be shortened. Bykovsky flew within about 5 km of Valentina Tereshkova's Vostok 6 spacecraft, establishing radio contact with her.

Answer: Vostok 6

Valentina V. Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space, piloting Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963. She communicated with Valery Bykovsky aboard Vostok 5, the second group flight of the Soviet space program. Tereshkova encountered problems with her communications gear during the mission, failing to reply to ground controllers several times. Tereshkova would be the only woman to fly in space until Svetlana Savitskaya repeated the feat aboard Soyuz T-7 in 1982 and American Sally Ride aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-7 in 1983. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev personally made the final crew selection for this mission. Vostok 6 was the last flight of the obsolete Vostok capsule, soon to be replaced by the Voskhod series of Soviet spacecraft.

Answer: Voskhod 2

Russian cosmonauts Pavel I. Belyayev and Aleksei A. Leonov rode Voskhod 2 into orbit on March 18, 1965. Flying a mission of 26 hours in length, Leonov was the first to leave his capsule and walk in space. Leonov had trouble re-entering the capsule because his space suit was too stiff, requiring him to partially depressurize it to gain entry.

The Voskhod series of spacecraft had a solid fuel braking rocket, eliminating the necessity for cosmonauts to bail out of their capsule to safely return to Earth. Voskhod 2 returned to Earth well outside its planned recovery area, forcing Leonov and Belyayev to fend off hungry wolves until rescue forces found them the next morning.