55th Anniversary Of Man Landing On The Moon
On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced to a special joint session of Congress the dramatic and ambitious goal of sending an American to the Moon and returning him safely to Earth before the end of the decade. Kennedy iterated his vision for the future of America’s space program in a formal address at Rice University in Houston on September 12, 1962, where he uttered the now famous line: “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.”
Thus began the Apollo Moon Mission. The Apollo Moon Program was one of the largest government initiatives in American history. At its peak, approximately 34,000 NASA employees and 375,000 outside contractors worked on the program. Budget estimates vary, but in 2008 the Congressional Research Service put the inflation-adjusted cost of Apollo at $98 billion ($143 billion today) – many times more expensive than the Manhattan Project and the equivalent of nearly $730 for every man, woman, and child living in the United States in 1969.
Kennedy’s goal was achieved 55 years ago. Apollo 11 was launched on July 16, 1969. On July 20, Commander Neil Armstrong stepped from the lunar module ladder onto the lunar surface. Eight days after launch, on July 24, Apollo 11 successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
Many consider the Apollo mission to be mankind’s greatest technological achievement. To commemorate this achievement, here is a quick quiz to test your knowledge of Apollo and lunar trivia.
There are multiple-choice answers for each question, but only one is correct. See my next column for the answers.
Quiz
1. Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon. Who was the second man to walk on the Moon?
A) Jim Lovell
B) Alan Shepard
C) Edwin Aldrin
D) Chuck Yeager
2) During Apollo 15, astronaut David Scott performed an experiment proving which scientist’s theory?
A) Albert Einstein
B) Galileo Galilei
C) Isaac Newton
D) Nicolaus Copernicus
3) Who was the last man on the Moon?
A) Gene Cernan
B) Harrison Schmitt
C) Yuri Gagarin
D) John Glenn
4) Which company made the Apollo spacesuits?
A) Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin)
B) Grumman (now Northrop Grumman)
C) Boeing
D) Playtex
5) Which President of the United States called the astronauts on the Moon from the White House following the landing of Apollo 11?
A) Richard Nixon
B) Gerald Ford
C) Lyndon Johnson
D) John F Kennedy
6) True or False. After stepping onto the lunar surface, Neil Armstrong uttered the phrase, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
A) True
B) False
7) Who said, “That may have been a small step for Neil, but it was a pretty long one for me!”?
A) Yuri Gagarin
B) Buzz Aldrin
C) Pete Conrad
D) Jim Lovell
8) How many crew members were on each Apollo mission?
A) 2
B) 3
C) 4
D) 5
9) The computer on the Apollo 11 lunar lander was about as powerful as?
A) There was no computer on the lunar lander, they used sextants and slide rules
B) Dollar store calculator
C) Apple iPhone 1
D) Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
10) How many humans have walked on the Moon?
A) 6
B) 12
C) 24
D) 48
11) How many humans have navigated around the Moon?
A) 12
B) 24
C) 48
D) 96
12) If a man has a mass of 150 lbs on Earth, what is his approximate mass on the Moon?
A) 25 lbs
B) 50 lbs
C) 150 lbs
D) 300 lbs
- Quiz: Test Your Knowledge ⬅ You are here
- Quiz: Test Your Knowledge – Answers
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