Science & Nature
EasySpace Crossword: Early Spaceflight
Category: Science & NatureDifficulty: Hard13 × 13
Sunday, September 13
Leaderboard Ad Unit
Enter one letter per square. Answers run Across or Down. Omit spaces and accents; any special spelling convention is stated in the clue. This is a freeform themed grid, so some letters are not crossed.
MPU / Sidebar Ad Unit
About This Theme
Before space stations became familiar, each mission had to prove something new. This crossword visits the programs, spacecraft and people of early human spaceflight. The clues specify surnames when that is what belongs in the grid, so resist filling a whole name into a shorter space. Several answers are also ordinary words or names from mythology. Here they belong to a particular historical setting. Work from the milestone in each clue, and use the crossings to distinguish a program from a vehicle or a person.
Clues
Across
- 2Name before V on the rocket that launched Apollo 11 (6)
- 5NASA's first human spaceflight program (7)
- 6Soviet spacecraft program whose first crewed flight carried Gagarin (6)
- 8Surname of the first American to orbit Earth (5)
- 9Apollo 11 lunar module's call sign (5)
- 10Surname of the first human to orbit Earth (7)
- 11Joining two spacecraft together in flight (7)
Down
- 1Surname of the first person to step onto the Moon (9)
- 3NASA program whose eleventh numbered mission landed people on the Moon (6)
- 4Name shared by the Soviet satellite numbered 1, launched in 1957 (7)
- 7Surname of the first American in space (7)
- 8NASA's two-person spacecraft program between Mercury and Apollo (6)
Answers and Explanations
After Your Solve
One way into this puzzle is to sort the answers into categories after solving: people, programs, spacecraft and operations. MERCURY and GEMINI belong to a sequence of US programs; EAGLE names a particular lunar module. DOCKING describes an operation rather than a destination. That structure makes the history easier to remember than an isolated list of dates. The surname instructions are also part of the fairness of the puzzle. They tell you exactly which portion of a familiar astronaut's name the grid expects.
- 2 acrossSATURN
Saturn V was the launch vehicle.
- 5 acrossMERCURY
Mercury preceded Gemini.
- 6 acrossVOSTOK
Vostok 1 carried the first human into space.
- 8 acrossGLENN
John Glenn orbited Earth in 1962.
- 9 acrossEAGLE
Eagle carried Armstrong and Aldrin to the surface.
- 10 acrossGAGARIN
Yuri Gagarin flew aboard Vostok 1 in 1961.
- 11 acrossDOCKING
Docking creates a physical connection between spacecraft.
- 1 downARMSTRONG
Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface before Buzz Aldrin.
- 3 downAPOLLO
Apollo 11 made the first crewed lunar landing.
- 4 downSPUTNIK
Sputnik 1 became the first artificial Earth satellite.
- 7 downSHEPARD
Alan Shepard made a suborbital flight in 1961.
- 8 downGEMINI
Gemini tested techniques needed for later missions.
Further Reading
- Theme referencenasa.gov
More Puzzles
Science & Nature
MediumMoon Crossword: Looking at the Moon
Play Moon Crossword: Looking at the MoonScience & Nature
EasySolar System Crossword: Solar System Neighbors
Play Solar System Crossword: Solar System Neighbors
Tomorrow's puzzle is already being written.
Membership is free, we send one email a morning, and you can leave with one click.