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Dedicated to my wonderful friend, MM,

the cold weather wimp.    ;-)

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Pioneer astronaut John Glenn died on Thursday.    He was the first American to orbit Earth and was the longest surviving astronaut of the original Mercury 7.  In honor of both Glenn and the Space Program, we offer this quiz about the human endeavor to explore outer space.

1.    Name the seven astronauts who comprised the "Mercury 7."

2.  Who was the only Mercury 7 astronaut to walk on the moon?

3.   When was NASA founded?

a.   1956

b.   1957

c.  1958

d.  1961

4.  Which ONE of the following men did NOT walk on the moon?

a.  David Randolph Scott

b.  Alan Bean

c.  Edgar Mitchell

d.  James Irwin

e.  Eugene Cernan

f.  Norman Schulze

5.   Humans visited the moon for the last time in what year?

a.   1969

b.   1972

c.   1973

d.   1975 

6.  Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is noteworthy because___________

a. he was the first human to visit outer space

b. he was the first human to orbit Earth

c.  he was the first cosmonaut on the moon

d.  both a and b

e.  none of the above

7.  As of now,  there have been citizens from _________ different countries in outer space.

a.  25

b. 40

c.  45

d. 61

8.  Mariner 2 was the first spacecraft to visit another planet.  Which planet did it visit?

a.  Venus

b. Mars

c. Mercury

d.  Jupiter

9.  Who was the first woman in outer space?

a.  Sally Ride

b. Valentina Tereshkova

c.  Judith Resnik

d.  Liu Yang

10.   The International Space Station completes one orbit around Earth approximately every ____________.

a.  half hour

b. 90 minutes

c.  2 hours

d. one day

ANSWERS

1.
 

Front row:  Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter
Back row:  Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper

IMAGE:  NASA

2.  Alan Shepard

3..   c.  1958

4.  f.  Norman Schulze

5. b.   1972

The Apollo 17 astronauts  Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan lifted off from the lunar surface on December 13, 1972.

6. d.  both a and b

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin completed an orbit around Earth.  His was the first human voyage into outer space.

7.  b. 40

On September 2, 2015, the first person from Denmark and the first person from Kazakhstan went into outer space.

8. a.  Venus

9. b. Valentina Tereshkova

Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova went into space on June 16, 1963.   Sally Ride was the first American woman in outer space.  She launched into space aboard the seventh Space Shuttle mission in 1983

10. b. 90 minutes