When it comes to human accomplishments, it's tough to top space travel. Neil Armstrong squarely hit the nail on the head with the whole "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" business.
But who are the men and women who have taken those small steps? How much do you know -- or think you know -- about the privileged few who have actually risen above the atmosphere?
Strap in for ride, because it's time to take the People in Space Quiz!
-- Robert Lamb, HowStuffWorks.com
You've probably heard that cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human being to rocket into space.
But do you know how long was he up there during his 1961 jaunt?
Barely 30 seconds
Seven minutes
Just under two hours
Roughly six hours
Gagarin drifted in orbit for about an hour and 48 minutes on April 12, 1961.
That would have given him just enough time to view that year's "The Outsider" if an in-orbit movie had been an option aboard the cramped Vostok 1 spacecraft.
Fast-forward a couple weeks later to May 5, 1961.
The United States placed second in the space race when they launched Alan B. Shepard Jr. into orbit aboard Freedom 7.
Shepard experienced quite a wait, however, and soon had a full bladder to contend with. How did the famed space pioneer cope?
"Held it," resulting in bladder damage
Wet himself
Used an empty soda bottle from the capsule's floorboard
Space walked over to the bathroom aboard Sputnik
When nature called during the long buildup to launch, there was no freeing Shepard from the capsule or the tight straps that fastened him to his seat.
When he asked mission control what to do, they responded, "Do it in the suit."
Not long after Gagarin and Shepard earned accolades, the Soviet Union sent the first woman into space -- cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova -- on June 16, 1963.
Upon her return from orbit, she joined Gagarin as a "Hero of the Soviet Union."
Although Tereshkova never ventured into space again, scientists were very interested in her daughter. Why?
Her child was conceived in orbit
Her child was born in orbit
Both the child's parents had been to orbit
The Soviet Union wanted to send a baby into orbit
When Tereshkova returned, she married fellow cosmonaut Andreyan Nikolayev.
Their child, Elena, was the first child born to parents who both had been exposed to space.
The little girl grew up just fine, however, and later became a physician.
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov performed the first space walk on March 18, 1965.
The mission set a landmark in the history of space exploration, but it was plagued by near disaster.
Which of the following didn't happen to the two-man crew of the Voskhod 2?
Space debris chipped Leonov's visor, sending him spinning toward reentry
Leonov's spacesuit froze up, and he could barely scramble back inside the capsule
Leonov's suit leaked air during the final stage of the walk
They crashed in the mountains and were sniffed at by hungry wolves
The scrappy space walker actually didn't have to deal with the following disaster: a tiny piece of space shrapnel chipping his visor and sending him spinning toward reentry.
While Leonov didn't have to contend with space debris, he did encounter a few scares trying to climb back into the capsule with his rigid, leaking suit.
The trouble didn't end there: a rocket malfunction landed them amid snow-covered mountains on reentry, and the two cosmonauts were welcomed back to Earth by wolves scratching and pawing at the spacecraft's hatch.
U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong took humanity's famous first human steps on the moon on July 20, 1969.
What's another space travel milestones can he boast about outside of his lunar experiences?
Oldest person to venture into space
First ship-to-ship docking in space
Longest mission in space
Shortest space walk in history
It may not sound as awesome as "first man on the moon," but Armstrong also participated in the first docking between two vehicles in space in 1966 (using the Agena Target Docking vehicle and the Gemini 8 spacecraft).
In 2001, California millionaire Dennis Tito became the first person to buy a ticket to orbit.
How many greenbacks did Tito shell out to gain the title of "world's first space tourist?"
$2 million
$20 million
$200 million
$2 billion
Dennis Tito paid $20 million for a round-trip ticket with a crew of cosmonauts to the International Space Station, where he stayed for eight days.
However, there were no rock star shenanigans in this space hotel. Tito signed a contract in which he agreed to pay for any damages he caused and agreed to steer clear of all U.S. portions of the space station while unescorted.
Throughout the 20th century, the so-called space race was purely a two-team contest between the United States and Russia.
In 2003, another group entered into the manned exploration of outer space. Who?
India
United Kingdom
Microsoft
People's Republic of China
On October 15, 2003, the Chinese took third place among nations to put people into orbit.
Yang Liwei became the first "taikonaut" to orbit the planet, and did so 14 times before returning home to solid ground.
While news of manned space flights aren't so jaw-dropping as they were in the 1960s, there's hardly a huge population up there.
What's the all-time high for Earth's orbital population?
3 people
13 people
23 people
33 people
The human population above Earth's atmosphere peaked in March 1995 at 13, when the Russian Soyuz spacecraft carried three crewmembers into orbit to join three others aboard the Mir Space Station.
At the same time, seven astronauts orbited in a separate mission about the space shuttle Endeavour. The record was tied on March 27, 2009, with three people aboard Soyuz TMA-14, seven aboard the space shuttle Discovery and three living it up on the International Space Station.
John Glenn made headlines in 1998 when he returned to orbit at the age of 77, making him the oldest human to travel into space.
What is the youngest age on record for someone in orbit?
15 years old
18 years old
25 years old
28 years old
Some serious training is required for would-be space travelers, and if your government isn't sending you it can take awhile to save up for the pricey ticket.
Cosmonaut Gherman Titov, 25, was the youngest to reach orbit on August 1961.
Talk about Music from the Hearts of Space. A number of musical instruments have found their way aboard manned space flights to help liven the mood a bit.
Which of the following is thought to be the first musical instrument played in orbit?
Harmonica
Electric keyboard
Flute
Didgeridoo
All four these instruments have been heard inside manned spacecraft on orbit, but the harmonica broke the musical silence first.
Ten days before Christmas 1965, the astronauts aboard Gemini 6 performed a rendition of the holiday tune "Jingle Bells" using a harmonica and bells.
Soyuz-T -10-1
Voskhod 2
Apollo 13
Mir Space Station
Apollo 11
What Do You Want To Do Next?
our sites
video
mobile
shop
stay connected
corporate
comments ( )