Answers to the Cold War & the Space Race
Part I
Use the back of this paper if you need more room for your answers.
1. Who first used rockets in battle? When? How were they described?
2. What inspired Francis Scott Keys to write “the rockets red glare” in the Star Spangled
Banner? Who was attacking For Henry? What year?
3. Who developed the basic theory of rocket propulsion? Why did his design include
plants on board? What were the fuels for his rocket?
4. Who launched the first liquid propelled rocket? What year? How high did it go?
What do gyroscopes do in a rocket?
5. Who designed the V-2 rocket? Where and when was it first used?
6. When was the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima? What did this event start?
7. What had the Soviets and the U.S. captured after WW II? Where did
Werner von Braun go? What year did the Soviet Union first test an atomic
bomb?
8. What does ICBM stand for? What were ICBM’s designed to do?
9. What did Americans build in the 1950’s in fear of a nuclear attack? Who was Bert the
Turtle?
10. What did the Soviets launch in 1957? Who could hear it? When did its batteries
die? How often did it orbit the Earth? What does it mean that the launch of Sputnik
was a spectacular propaganda victory for the Soviets? Who was the leader of the
Soviet Union? What did Sputnik II carry?
11. What year did the U.S. create NASA? What does NASA stand for? Who played a
key role in NASA’s development? What did Senator Johnson become after the
assassination of John F. Kennedy?
12. Who was the first man launched into space? What country did he come from?
How long was his flight and what did he do during his flight? How fast did he go?
13. What year was Kennedy inaugurated? What event caused him embarrassment?
What were the U.S. and Soviet Union competing for concerning third world
nations? What did Kennedy propose in a speech in May of 1961?
14. What was the outcome of the Cuban missile crisis? When was Kennedy
assassinated? Who was the first American in space? Who was the first American
to orbit the Earth? What years did these flights take place?