posted 12-12-2009 06:29 PM               

1. How many times was Gemini 6 counted down?
   Three: on October 13, 66; December 12, 1966 and December 15, 1966

2. Which cosmonauts transferred from Soyuz 5 to Soyuz 4?
   Yeliseyev and Khrunov

3. Alan Shepard was chosen from a group of three to make the first U.S. manned flight. Who were the other two?
   Gus Grissom and John Glenn

4. Who is the youngest person to have been in orbit?
   German Titov at 25 years and 329 days

5. Which American has spent the longest time alone in orbit?
   Ken Mattingly: 81 hours 40 minutes in lunar orbit

6. When did Seagull have a passing relationship with Hawk?
   June 16, 1963 when Vostok 6 flew close to Vostok 5 in orbit

7. Who was the English Flight Director that ordered the termination of the Gemini 8 mission?
   John Hodge, born in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex
   
   
8. When might one hear the names Karaganda and Tselinograd mentioned?
   They are towns in the main Russian recovery area

9. What smuggled item helped the crew of Voskhod 2 survive whilst waiting for recovery?
   A box of matches smuggled aboard by Leonov and used to light a fire to keep warm

10. Which was the first Russian manned craft to land in water?
    Soyuz 23, by accident rather than design

11. What links the flights of Vostok 3, Apollo 15 and Soyuz 9?
    The call sign Falcon

12. What do Kathleen McDivitt and Elena Nikolayev have in common?
    Both were conceived after their respective paternal parents had made a space flight

13. What did Walt Cunningham have to give up at Wally Schirra's insistence before the Apollo 7 flight?
    Water skiing, he had had two nasty spills in the days before the flight

14. What did Gordon Cooper say they were doing for exercise on Gemini 5?
    Hold hands; use a skin cleansing towel and chew gum

15. Why was a short, solo lunar EVA planned for Schmitt on Apollo 17?
    Cernan was suffering from stomach cramps

16. What important point was reached 218,000 miles from Earth on Apollo 8?
    Tracking switched from Earth based reference to Moon based reference. This caused the spacecraft position to jump by several miles to the consternation of reporting journalists

17. Who were the first Russian crew to dock with a Salyut space station?
    The crew of Soyuz 10 with Salyut 1 for 5 hours

18. Which Apollo crew were 450 millionths of a second younger when they landed than if they had never flown?
    Apollo 9, according to Einstein's theory of relatively and as worked out by a mathematician with nothing better to do

19. What was the original design for the recovery of the Gemini capsules?
    the Rogallo wing

20. How many times has Russia launched a craft containing just one person?
    Nine: six Voskoks and three Soyuz

21. Identify by name -
    OV-102 Columbia
    Capsule 16 Sigma 7
    CSM 106 Charlie Brown
    NCC 1701 Enterprise
    MX 774 Atlas

posted 12-12-2009 11:48 PM               

If anyone scores 20 or above,

1. being a space buff would be a huge understatement.
   
2. might want to check with brain researchers, I'm sure they'd be interested in your atypical organ.
   
3. Get a life (chuckle)!

posted 12-17-2009 03:35 AM               

As to the questions - I would have thought that possibly seven were basic knowledge with another half dozen being obvious with a little thought. With this in mind 15 would be excellent and 20 definitely in 'geek' territory. The rest I hope would extend one's knowledge into the more human elements of our conquest of the 'final frontier' once the answers were revealed.