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Stuff Every CAP Aerospace Cadet Should Know
CAP aerospace education: flight, weather, rockets, space and cyber safety, for achievement tests and the Mitchell exam.
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⏱ Timed practice exam
AhaBulb practice exam: 50 questions, 50 minutes, pass with 40 right (80%).
Take it like the real thing: a countdown, no hints until you finish, then your score by topic, every miss explained, and a readiness score from your last 3 exams.
Take a timed practice exam For AhaBulb members. See plans
About the real test: Civil Air Patrol Aerospace Dimensions tests
- Cadets pass an Aerospace Dimensions module test, open-book, with 80 percent or higher. Module 1 is for the Arnold achievement. (CAP: H. H. Hap Arnold Achievement)
- There are six modules: Introduction to Flight, Aircraft Systems and Airports, Air Environment, Rockets, Space Environment and Spacecraft. (CAP: Achievement 9)
- Cadets can do the online Cadet Interactive module instead of the written test, and can mix the two. (CAP: Cadet Tests and Exams)
Rules change: always check the official source before test day.
Try 3 cards
- What happens to a fluid's pressure when its speed increases?
Show the answer
It decreases. Air is a fluid. Bernoulli's principle says faster-moving air has lower pressure, one part of understanding airflow around a wing.
- Which Newton law connects downward airflow with an upward reaction?
Show the answer
Newton's third law. A wing redirects air downward. The air's reaction on the wing helps push the aircraft upward.
- Before the critical angle, what usually happens when angle of attack increases?
Show the answer
Lift increases. A larger angle makes the wing turn more airflow downward, increasing lift before the wing reaches its critical angle. Past that limit, airflow can separate and the wing stalls.
All 495 practice questions
The first 50 are free, with the answer, why it's right and the official sources. The other 445 (🔒) are for AhaBulb members. Or play them as a game and track what you've learned.
Show all 495 questions
- What happens to a fluid's pressure when its speed increases?
- Which Newton law connects downward airflow with an upward reaction?
- Before the critical angle, what usually happens when angle of attack increases?
- What do Fowler flaps increase when extended?
- Which airplane part is its main body?
- What does an airfoil's chord line connect?
- Which force opposes an airplane's weight in flight?
- Which force directly opposes thrust?
- Which axis and motion pairing is correct?
- Which control surface produces yaw?
- What is a thermal, the thing sailplane pilots search for?
- Which atmospheric feature can help a sailplane climb near mountains?
- How does an unpowered glider commonly begin a flight?
- What does a 20-to-1 glide ratio mean?
- What makes soaring different from simply gliding downward?
- Why can heated air lift a hot-air balloon?
- How does a balloon pilot mainly influence horizontal direction?
- What is the large fabric body of a hot-air balloon called?
- Which action normally makes a hot-air balloon climb?
- Before any people flew, who rode a Montgolfier balloon in a 1783 test?
- What aircraft carried people on the first free human flight?
- What is the correct four-stroke engine sequence?
- How does piston motion reach a reciprocating engine's propeller?
- What is the streamlined cover around an airplane engine called?
- What streamlined enclosure often surrounds a wing-mounted engine?
- Which sequence follows air through a basic jet engine core?
- What do fast exhaust gases create as they leave a jet engine?
- What does the throttle control in a basic training airplane?
- Why does a pilot lean the fuel mixture when flying at higher altitude?
- Which measurement lets an altimeter estimate altitude?
- What two pressures does an airspeed indicator compare?
- Where does an airplane normally park at an airport?
- What is an airport traffic pattern?
- A runway aligned near 270 degrees is usually numbered what?
- Which colors identify a mandatory airport instruction sign?
- What makes an airport controlled?
- What does approach control help arriving pilots do?
- What normally begins an airplane's flight profile before engine start?
- Which phase normally follows cruise as an airplane prepares to land?
- Why do pilots and controllers use the phonetic alphabet on the radio?
- How does the official aviation phonetic alphabet spell the word for the letter A?
- How do sectional charts get their names?
- How often are VFR sectional charts updated?
- On a sectional chart, what do contour lines connect?
- What does latitude measure?
- Longitude measures distance east or west of what line?
- About how many statute miles does one degree of latitude cover?
- On a sectional chart, what does a Maximum Elevation Figure (MEF) show?
- Next to a tower on a sectional chart, what does the number in parentheses show?
- In a sectional chart's airport data, the number 54 for runway length means what?
- On a sectional chart, what does CTAF stand for? 🔒
- Which gas makes up most of the air we breathe? 🔒
- Air holds only zero to about 5 percent water vapor. What does that small amount do? 🔒
- In the standard atmosphere, how much does temperature drop per 1,000 feet of climb? 🔒
- What is the standard temperature at sea level used by pilots and aircraft makers? 🔒
- In which layer of the atmosphere does almost all weather happen? 🔒
- What is the tropopause? 🔒
- Which layer of the atmosphere holds the ozone layer? 🔒
- In which atmosphere layer do most meteors burn up? 🔒
- Why does the equator get more heat from the Sun than the poles? 🔒
- Why does warm air rise? 🔒
- What causes Earth's seasons? 🔒
- When is Earth closest to the Sun in its yearly orbit? 🔒
- Earth spinning on its axis once each day causes what? 🔒
- Earth's spin breaks the air's flow into how many big circulation cells in each hemisphere? 🔒
- Which winds blow from about 30 degrees north latitude toward the equator? 🔒
- In the Northern Hemisphere, which way does the Coriolis effect bend moving air? 🔒
- At the same speed, where is Coriolis deflection strongest? 🔒
- What is the jet stream? 🔒
- Who created the Beaufort wind scale, and why? 🔒
- On the Beaufort scale, which sign on land means force 0, calm? 🔒
- When two objects touch, which way does heat flow? 🔒
- At standard sea level pressure, where do pure water's freezing and boiling points fall on the Fahrenheit scale? 🔒
- The air is minus 5 degrees F and the wind chill is minus 31. How cold can a car's radiator get? 🔒
- About how wide is a microburst's downdraft as it comes down from the cloud? 🔒
- How long does a single microburst usually last after it hits the ground? 🔒
- During an inadvertent takeoff into a microburst, which wind may come first? 🔒
- What is the dew point? 🔒
- Relative humidity of 65 percent means what? 🔒
- What is it called when ice turns straight into water vapor without melting first? 🔒
- What is rain called that falls from a cloud but dries up before reaching the ground? 🔒
- How does hail grow so large? 🔒
- What is fog? 🔒
- Which conditions make fog most likely? 🔒
- What is atmospheric turbulence? 🔒
- Why can rising warm air create turbulence? 🔒
- What makes a body of air an air mass? 🔒
- When does a funnel cloud become a tornado? 🔒
- What air motion dominates a building thunderstorm? 🔒
- What air motion marks a dissipating thunderstorm? 🔒
- Where should you stay during a thunderstorm indoors? 🔒
- What is the best tornado shelter choice at home? 🔒
- How did Hero's ancient steam device demonstrate rocket propulsion? 🔒
- How did early Chinese experimenters make rocket arrows? 🔒
- What was William Congreve's role in rocket history? 🔒
- What did Robert Goddard successfully fly in 1926? 🔒
- Which flight-control tool did Goddard develop for rockets? 🔒
- Which spacecraft became the first artificial satellite? 🔒
- Who was the first human to orbit Earth? 🔒
- What does acceleration measure? 🔒
- Which law explains why a rocket stays still before liftoff? 🔒
- What equation summarizes Newton's second law? 🔒
- Why does exhaust rushing downward push a rocket upward? 🔒
- Which list names the four major rocket systems? 🔒
- Which rocket system decides the path to the destination? 🔒
- What is a rocket's payload? 🔒
- What rocket principle can propel a land-speed vehicle? 🔒
- What is the purpose of a recoverable rocket booster? 🔒
- How high did an Ansari X-Prize flight need to go? 🔒
- What repeat-flight rule made the X-Prize especially challenging? 🔒
- What milestone did Mike Melvill reach in SpaceShipOne? 🔒
- Which sequence describes a SpaceShipTwo flight? 🔒
- What altitude is widely used as the start of space? 🔒
- What is the pressure like in outer space? 🔒
- Why do astronauts float while orbiting Earth? 🔒
- About how warm is deep space's background radiation? 🔒
- What is inertia? 🔒
- What is rocket thrust? 🔒
- What do maritime and continental say about an air mass? 🔒
- What happens as a warm front advances? 🔒
- What does advancing cold air do at a cold front? 🔒
- What feature must a thunderstorm have? 🔒
- What is the eye of a hurricane usually like? 🔒
- Why do astronauts float inside the space station? 🔒
- At the space station's height, Earth's gravity is about how strong compared to the ground? 🔒
- What part of space is called cislunar space? 🔒
- What is interstellar space? 🔒
- Which list names the three main galaxy shapes taught to cadets? 🔒
- Our Milky Way galaxy has what kind of shape? 🔒
- About how old do scientists think the universe is? 🔒
- What is a nebula? 🔒
- What will our Sun become near the end of its life? 🔒
- After a huge star explodes as a supernova, what can its leftover core become? 🔒
- A Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram sorts stars by which two things? 🔒
- In the star classes O, B, A, F, G, K, M, which stars are the hottest? 🔒
- What is the long, steady part of a star's life called, when nuclear reactions in its core power it? 🔒
- What does a star's absolute magnitude measure? 🔒
- One astronomical unit (AU) is the average distance from what to what? 🔒
- Why do sunspots look dark? 🔒
- What is a solar flare? 🔒
- What is a solar prominence? 🔒
- How strong is gravity on the Moon compared to Earth? 🔒
- What kind of atmosphere does the Moon have? 🔒
- What are temperatures like on the Moon's surface? 🔒
- What are the dark patches you can see on the Moon? 🔒
- Why do we always see the same side of the Moon? 🔒
- What causes the phases of the Moon? 🔒
- What happens during a solar eclipse? 🔒
- A lunar eclipse can only happen during which Moon phase? 🔒
- Which way does a comet's tail point? 🔒
- What is the main difference between an asteroid and a comet? 🔒
- What do we call a space rock that is still out in space? 🔒
- When a space rock survives the trip down and lands on the ground, what is it called? 🔒
- Under the 2006 IAU rules, what must a planet do that a dwarf planet has not done? 🔒
- In what year was Pluto reclassified as a dwarf planet? 🔒
- Which dwarf planet lives in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter? 🔒
- Which planet is both the smallest and the closest to the Sun? 🔒
- Which planet is the hottest in our solar system? 🔒
- Why does Mars look red? 🔒
- About how many Earths could fit inside Jupiter if it were hollow? 🔒
- Saturn's main rings stretch very wide. About how thick are they? 🔒
- What is strange about the way Uranus spins? 🔒
- Which planet is the farthest from the Sun? 🔒
- What shape are all orbits? 🔒
- In a satellite's orbit around Earth, what is the apogee? 🔒
- What is a space probe? 🔒
- In a basic satellite command-and-control link, where does the command signal originate? 🔒
- Who operates and maintains the GPS satellite system? 🔒
- What is the X-37B? 🔒
- What was the main goal of Project Mercury, America's first human spaceflight program? 🔒
- Project Gemini was America's first spacecraft built to carry how many astronauts? 🔒
- How many Apollo missions landed astronauts on the Moon? 🔒
- What did Apollo and Soyuz do together in 1975? 🔒
- What made Apollo-Soyuz more than a docking test? 🔒
- Who became the first American in space? 🔒
- Who first stepped onto the Moon? 🔒
- Which spacecraft carried Hubble into orbit? 🔒
- Why can Hubble make especially clear space images? 🔒
- What makes the ISS truly international? 🔒
- About how often does the ISS orbit Earth? 🔒
- What work did space shuttles perform in orbit? 🔒
- How did a space shuttle orbiter land? 🔒
- Who was China's first space traveler? 🔒
- What does a Tianzhou spacecraft deliver to Tiangong? 🔒
- What was Salyut 1's place in space history? 🔒
- How did Mir differ from one-piece stations like Skylab? 🔒
- Why do astronauts exercise about two hours daily? 🔒
- Why is a spacesuit like a tiny spacecraft? 🔒
- Which everyday camera technology grew from NASA research? 🔒
- How has space research helped clean water on Earth? 🔒
- How does Artemis connect the Moon and Mars? 🔒
- What two layers make up cyberspace? 🔒
- What is the main role of cybersecurity? 🔒
- What is a computer network? 🔒
- What does cyber describe in computing? 🔒
- What is cyberwarfare? 🔒
- What does cyber ethics guide? 🔒
- Which hacker acts with malicious intent? 🔒
- Why can grey hat hacking still be wrong? 🔒
- Why install software security updates promptly? 🔒
- What can a criminal steal with a keylogger? 🔒
- What is malware? 🔒
- Which message style is a phishing warning sign? 🔒
- What can reveal a phishing link? 🔒
- How do first-party and third-party cookies differ? 🔒
- Which cookie lasts beyond one browsing session? 🔒
- How do privacy settings protect online information? 🔒
- What should you check before granting an app permission? 🔒
- What makes a digital footprint passive? 🔒
- Why should you think before posting publicly? 🔒
- What is cyberbullying? 🔒
- How can cyberbullying be different from bullying in person? 🔒
- How do cyber predators often gain someone's trust online? 🔒
- If an online bully threatens to hurt someone right away, what should you do? 🔒
- What does an online troll usually try to do? 🔒
- How can keeping your password private help prevent cyberbullying? 🔒
- Which two approaches to a cyber career does CAP's module name? 🔒
- What do ethical hacking certifications train people to do? 🔒
- What is penetration testing in cyber security? 🔒
- Which cyber security job is an advanced level position? 🔒
- During a ransomware attack, what should defenders do first with the infected computers? 🔒
- If an infected computer cannot be unplugged from the network, what does CISA say to do? 🔒
- After a ransomware attack, where should a company restore its data from? 🔒
- In the Greek legend, what were Icarus's wings made of? 🔒
- In one legend, how did Alexander the Great fly? 🔒
- Which early Chinese invention helped people start thinking about flying? 🔒
- What was Leonardo da Vinci's flapping-wing flying machine called? 🔒
- In 1670, the Jesuit priest Francesco de Lana wrote about what? 🔒
- What did English chemist Henry Cavendish discover in 1766 that later lifted balloons? 🔒
- What design did George Cayley say was the best way for people to fly? 🔒
- German glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal helped the Wright brothers in what way? 🔒
- Why did the Wright brothers build their own wind tunnel in 1901? 🔒
- How did the Wright brothers control roll on their early aircraft? 🔒
- How far did the very first Wright Flyer flight go on December 17, 1903? 🔒
- In 1909, who bought the U.S. Army's first airplane? 🔒
- In 1911, how long did Cal Rodgers take to fly the Vin Fiz across the United States? 🔒
- Who was the first American woman to earn a pilot's license, in 1911? 🔒
- In 1909, Louis Bleriot became the first to fly an airplane across what? 🔒
- Why are helicopters called rotary-wing aircraft? 🔒
- The first regularly scheduled airline, in 1914, flew across which body of water? 🔒
- When the U.S. joined World War I in 1917, what planes did its pilots fly in combat? 🔒
- What World War I invention by Anthony Fokker changed air combat? 🔒
- Eddie Rickenbacker, America's top World War I ace, flew with which squadron? 🔒
- What was the first aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, in 1919? 🔒
- What happened to U.S. military aviation right after World War I? 🔒
- Who were the barnstormers of the 1920s? 🔒
- In 1921, Billy Mitchell's bombers proved air power by sinking what? 🔒
- In 1929, Spaatz and Eaker stayed aloft about 150 hours in the Question Mark to show off what? 🔒
- What kind of race was the Bendix Trophy Race, added to the National Air Races in 1931? 🔒
- Who won the first Women's Air Derby in 1929? 🔒
- What group of women pilots formed after the 1929 Women's Air Derby? 🔒
- The first regular U.S. air mail service in 1918 connected Washington, DC, with which city? 🔒
- On his 1927 solo flight to Paris, why did Lindbergh fly as both pilot and navigator? 🔒
- In 1929, Jimmy Doolittle became the first pilot to do what? 🔒
- Which three future aircraft makers founded Travel Air together? 🔒
- Why did the McNary-Watres Act encourage airlines to use larger airplanes? 🔒
- Which airplane became the standard commercial airliner by the late 1930s? 🔒
- Which cities did Pan American's first airmail route connect? 🔒
- How many Atlantic crossings did Pan American's six Boeing 314 Clippers make? 🔒
- When did rigid airships reach their peak popularity? 🔒
- Which set contains only German Zeppelins built between the world wars? 🔒
- Which company developed the Model 299 during the interwar years? 🔒
- As war loomed in January 1939, what did the US President call for? 🔒
- How did Hap Arnold propose expanding Army pilot training before World War II? 🔒
- After World War I, what kind of airplanes was Germany still allowed to build? 🔒
- How did interwar air-power trends differ between the Allies and Axis powers? 🔒
- What made blitzkrieg a combined-arms strategy? 🔒
- Which fighter was the Luftwaffe's backbone early in World War II? 🔒
- Where did Germany use airborne infantry during its northern European advance? 🔒
- About how long did France hold out against the German attack in 1940? 🔒
- Before invading Britain in 1940, what did Hitler want the Luftwaffe to do first? 🔒
- What design weakness hurt the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain? 🔒
- Which other regions saw fighting during the Battle of Britain? 🔒
- What upset Germany's expectation of a quick victory on the Russian front? 🔒
- After the United States entered World War II, which opponent had first priority? 🔒
- How did Allied grand strategy change after the United States entered the war? 🔒
- What economic need drove Japan's territorial expansion strategy? 🔒
- What was Japan's primary military goal in attacking Pearl Harbor? 🔒
- About how many pilots had the Civilian Pilot Training Program and its wartime successor trained by 1944? 🔒
- What job did Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron pilots perform? 🔒
- What two major roles were planned for US air power in Europe? 🔒
- What command change improved Allied air support in North Africa? 🔒
- How did Giulio Douhet believe air supremacy should be gained? 🔒
- How did early American and British bombing approaches differ? 🔒
- What were the Combined Bomber Offensive's first-priority targets at the start? 🔒
- What new role did P-51 Mustangs perform in the bomber campaign? 🔒
- When did Allied forces land in Normandy to begin the invasion of Europe? 🔒
- Why did Allied aircraft strike around Normandy before the landings? 🔒
- Which two aircraft-centered naval battles helped stop Japan's advance in 1942? 🔒
- On what date did Japan officially surrender, ending World War II? 🔒
- Which two superpowers stood at the center of the Cold War? 🔒
- Why was the rivalry called a cold war? 🔒
- In 1947, which law made the US Air Force its own separate branch of the military? 🔒
- Which World War II bomber was the first to have pressurized crew compartments? 🔒
- Which British engineer independently developed a turbojet engine in the 1930s? 🔒
- Which German World War II jet had about 1,400 examples produced? 🔒
- After World War II, the Soviet Union blocked supplies into Berlin. How did the Allies keep the city supplied? 🔒
- Which aviation first occurred during the Korean War? 🔒
- Over Korea, which American jet fighter battled the Soviet-built MiG-15? 🔒
- Which airplane was the world's first pure jet airliner? 🔒
- Which airplane was the world's first turboprop airliner? 🔒
- Which three companies became the 'big three' of general aviation after World War II? 🔒
- Before and during World War II, which US group did most of the country's aviation research? 🔒
- Who became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound, in the Bell X-1 in 1947? 🔒
- What speed milestone did test pilot Scott Crossfield reach in November 1953? 🔒
- Which symbol of Cold War division fell in 1989? 🔒
- Which two airplanes were built to fly very high over other countries to watch from above? 🔒
- About how fast was the SR-71 Blackbird designed to cruise? 🔒
- During Desert Shield in 1990, what was activated for the first time in history? 🔒
- The rocket-powered X-15 set a speed record of about what? 🔒
- Which Boeing jetliner ushered the United States into the jet age with Pan Am in 1958? 🔒
- Companies from which two countries teamed up to build the supersonic Concorde airliner? 🔒
- What is NASA's X-59 designed to do? 🔒
- What unusual wing did NASA's X-29 research jet test? 🔒
- Why do many airliners have winglets, the bent-up wing tips? 🔒
- In aerodynamics, what does a fluid's viscosity describe? 🔒
- What does an airplane's Mach number compare? 🔒
- Scientists once thought the 'sound barrier' could not be crossed. What was it really? 🔒
- Flight faster than about what speed is called hypersonic? 🔒
- On an airfoil, what is camber? 🔒
- Daniel Bernoulli, whose principle helps explain lift, was what kind of scientist? 🔒
- In the simple four-forces model, what happens when thrust exceeds drag? 🔒
- Some fighter jets can swivel their engine nozzles. What is that called? 🔒
- For a given airplane configuration, a stall occurs after exceeding what? 🔒
- Which kind of drag is always there whenever a wing is making lift? 🔒
- Why do swirling vortices form at an airplane's wing tips? 🔒
- In flight, an airplane rotates around which point? 🔒
- When a pilot rolls into a turn, how do the two ailerons move? 🔒
- What do spoilers on top of a wing do? 🔒
- In a turboprop engine, how does the turbine turn the propeller? 🔒
- In a turbofan engine, what does the bypass air do? 🔒
- Why can't a jet engine work in outer space? 🔒
- Why can't a ramjet engine start an airplane moving from a standstill? 🔒
- NASA's X-43A set a speed record using what kind of engine? 🔒
- Which list names three common fuselage structures? 🔒
- Why is an airplane fuselage usually shaped smoothly? 🔒
- Where are the wheels on conventional landing gear? 🔒
- What wheel layout gives tricycle landing gear its name? 🔒
- Which aircraft parts can a hydraulic system move? 🔒
- What supplies electrical power while many aircraft engines run? 🔒
- What does an airspeed indicator show? 🔒
- How does a tilt-rotor aircraft change between hovering and forward flight? 🔒
- Which coordinate lines run parallel to the equator? 🔒
- What basic shape is used to explain a Mercator map projection? 🔒
- How can a sectional chart show terrain elevation? 🔒
- What color usually marks streams and lakes on a sectional chart? 🔒
- Why can magnetic north differ from true north? 🔒
- Which speed measures motion across Earth's surface? 🔒
- What navigation technique uses visible landmarks? 🔒
- Which navigation technique predicts position from planned flight factors? 🔒
- What two main parts work together in a VOR navigation system? 🔒
- How does distance-measuring equipment determine distance? 🔒
- What does ILS stand for in aviation? 🔒
- When is an Instrument Landing System used? 🔒
- What is the main purpose of an airport taxiway? 🔒
- What color are standard runway edge lights at night? 🔒
- Why do airports manage wildlife near runways? 🔒
- Why is noise a challenge for airports and nearby communities? 🔒
- What is Earth's atmosphere? 🔒
- What role can tiny dust, salt, or soot particles play in clouds? 🔒
- Which heat-transfer process moves heat vertically through a fluid? 🔒
- What happens near the surface when warm air rises? 🔒
- What is a weather front? 🔒
- What are the three basic cloud types? 🔒
- Which cloud type is the thunderstorm cloud? 🔒
- What is wind shear? 🔒
- What kind of wind shear is a microburst? 🔒
- Which conditions can be associated with clear-air turbulence? 🔒
- Which list orders the standard turbulence intensity categories? 🔒
- At what speed does flight enter the hypersonic range? 🔒
- A tropical storm becomes a hurricane when its sustained winds reach what speed? 🔒
- How far ahead of expected tropical-storm-force winds does the Hurricane Center issue a hurricane watch? 🔒
- What causes lake effect snow? 🔒
- What is a waterspout? 🔒
- Which Russian schoolteacher proposed exploring space by rocket in 1898? 🔒
- Which German rocket pioneer is called the Father of Space Flight? 🔒
- What was the title of Robert Goddard's famous 1919 rocket pamphlet? 🔒
- Which NASA center did Wernher von Braun direct starting in 1960? 🔒
- Which rocket helped land the first astronauts on the Moon in 1969? 🔒
- What was the first satellite the United States successfully launched? 🔒
- What did Explorer 1's instruments discover around Earth? 🔒
- For a rocket to lift off the pad, how must its thrust compare to its weight? 🔒
- In a simplified steady-thrust model, what happens to acceleration as a rocket burns propellant? 🔒
- Do rocket engines work in the vacuum of space, where there is no air to push against? 🔒
- What is a big drawback of a solid-fuel rocket motor? 🔒
- What can many liquid-fuel rocket engines do that solid motors cannot? 🔒
- What makes hypergolic rocket propellants special? 🔒
- What shape is a typical rocket engine nozzle? 🔒
- In a choked rocket nozzle, how fast is exhaust moving at the narrow throat? 🔒
- In what unit is a rocket engine's specific impulse usually measured? 🔒
- If two rocket engines are compared, what does a higher specific impulse mean? 🔒
- Why might designers pick a dense fuel with high density impulse for liftoff? 🔒
- In NASA's example of a rocket reaching orbit speed, about how much of its launch weight is propellant? 🔒
- About how fast must a rocket go to enter low orbit around Earth? 🔒
- About how fast must a spacecraft go to break free of Earth and head to another planet? 🔒
- In ballistic flight, which force is assumed to be the only one acting on the object? 🔒
- About how long does a science sounding rocket's payload typically spend in space? 🔒
- Why do scientists use sounding rockets instead of satellites for some experiments? 🔒
- For circular Earth orbits, how does satellite speed change as the orbit gets higher? 🔒
- About how high is a circular geosynchronous orbit? 🔒
- Why are many weather satellites placed in geostationary orbit? 🔒
- What is a polar orbit especially useful for? 🔒
- What is special about a Sun-synchronous orbit? 🔒
- About how high do GPS satellites orbit? 🔒
- What is a Molniya orbit useful for? 🔒
- What is an interplanetary Hohmann transfer known for? 🔒
- About how often does a minimum-energy launch chance to Mars come around? 🔒
- Where does the James Webb Space Telescope do its work? 🔒
- Why do rockets often launch toward the east? 🔒
- What is the heliosphere? 🔒
- Which spacecraft became the first human-made object to reach interstellar space? 🔒
- About how much of the solar system's total mass is in the Sun? 🔒
- What powers the Sun deep in its core? 🔒
- How does the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, compare in temperature to the layers below it? 🔒
- What is a coronal mass ejection, or CME? 🔒
- What makes the glowing lights of an aurora? 🔒
- What does Earth's magnetosphere do for our planet? 🔒
- What can space weather interfere with aboard satellites? 🔒
- Why can even small orbital debris damage a spacecraft? 🔒
- How long does Mercury take to orbit the Sun? 🔒
- Which planet has the hottest surface? 🔒
- On which planet would the Sun rise in the west? 🔒
- Which gas makes up most of Earth's atmosphere? 🔒
- About how much of Earth's surface does the global ocean cover? 🔒
- Where do most asteroids in our solar system orbit? 🔒
- Which way does a comet's tail generally point? 🔒
- What kind of galaxy is the Milky Way? 🔒
- What does a light-year measure? 🔒
- What was the first successful U.S. satellite? 🔒
- Can a nation claim the Moon as its territory? 🔒
- Under the Outer Space Treaty, who answers for a country's space activities, even private ones? 🔒
- Which U.S. law created NASA? 🔒
- Which U.S. agency authorizes commercial launches and reentries? 🔒
- Which planet has the shortest day? 🔒
- What are Saturn's rings mostly made of? 🔒
- Which planet has the lowest average density? 🔒
- Which planet appears to spin on its side? 🔒
- Which gas helps make Uranus look blue-green? 🔒
- About how long is one year on Neptune? 🔒
- Which planet has the fastest measured winds? 🔒
- How is Pluto classified today? 🔒
- How many known moons orbit Pluto? 🔒
- How long is one rotation of Mars? 🔒
- Why does the ITU coordinate satellite frequencies? 🔒
- What makes an object a satellite? 🔒
- What are the three main height classes of Earth orbit? 🔒
- What does an active communications satellite do with a signal? 🔒
- How does a passive communications satellite relay radio? 🔒
- Which three quantities can GPS determine precisely? 🔒
- Why can GOES satellites continuously watch developing storms? 🔒
- How do JPSS weather satellites achieve global coverage? 🔒
- What did America's first satellite, Explorer 1, help scientists discover? 🔒
- What kind of light is the James Webb Space Telescope built to detect? 🔒
- How did NASA's Kepler space telescope find planets around other stars? 🔒
- What kind of light does NASA's Chandra observatory study? 🔒
- In what year did Voyager 1 cross into interstellar space? 🔒
- What does the Golden Record carried by both Voyager probes hold? 🔒
- Which spacecraft was first to fly through the asteroid belt and past Jupiter? 🔒
- Which planet did Mariner 2 visit in 1962, the first successful planetary science mission? 🔒
- What was the first U.S. mission to land safely on Mars? 🔒
- Which spacecraft was the first to explore Pluto up close? 🔒
- Where did the Huygens probe land in 2005? 🔒
- What did NASA's Ingenuity helicopter do first on Mars in 2021? 🔒
- What part of the Sun did Parker Solar Probe become the first spacecraft to fly through? 🔒
- From what group did NASA pick its first seven astronauts in 1959? 🔒
- Who became the first American to orbit Earth, in 1962? 🔒
- How old was John Glenn when he flew on the space shuttle in 1998? 🔒
- Who made the first American spacewalk, on Gemini 4 in 1965? 🔒
- What space first did Gemini 8 achieve in 1966? 🔒
- Which mission carried the first humans to orbit the Moon? 🔒
- On Apollo 11, what was Michael Collins's job while Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the Moon? 🔒
- Which Apollo mission was the first to use a lunar rover on the Moon? 🔒
- Apollo 17, the last Apollo Moon landing, carried the first scientist to the Moon. What was his field? 🔒
- What was America's first space station, launched in 1973? 🔒
- What was Skylab's main workshop built from? 🔒
- Which orbiter flew the first space shuttle mission in 1981? 🔒
- What were the three main parts of the space shuttle at launch? 🔒
- Who became the first American woman in space, in 1983? 🔒
- Who became the first African American astronaut to fly in space, in 1983? 🔒
- How many missions did NASA's space shuttle fleet fly from 1981 to 2011? 🔒
- Who was the first woman to fly in space, in 1963? 🔒
- Who made the world's first spacewalk, in March 1965? 🔒
- Where does a Soyuz capsule usually land when it brings a crew home? 🔒
- Since when have people lived on the International Space Station without a break? 🔒
- About how long is the International Space Station from end to end? 🔒
- How many space agencies run the International Space Station together? 🔒
- How much prize money did SpaceShipOne win for the Ansari X-Prize in 2004? 🔒
- Why was SpaceX's Demo-2 flight in May 2020 a big deal for NASA? 🔒
- On NASA's Orion spacecraft, what does the launch abort system do? 🔒
- Who was aboard Artemis I when it flew around the Moon in 2022? 🔒
- What did NASA's Artemis II mission do in April 2026? 🔒
- What is NASA's Space Launch System, or SLS? 🔒
- Which planet is the smallest in our solar system? 🔒
- Which planet is the largest in our solar system? 🔒
- What is a meteor? 🔒