Space Race Word Search

Find 15 Space Race words in one grid, Sputnik to Lunar Module, with the answer key on page 2.

Name Date

Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.

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NASAPIDCMKERCTA

CAPOXAZAONOXFAK

PDUVBHTPOLHCWPK

OITOONNSNAQADOO

RGNSIOFUEUESCLT

BLITDLNLINRTTLH

IHKOMKMERCURYOA

TVDKRDETYHPOTNY

SAZCROARIHINBCV

RROOICOSMONAUTZ

OSALUNARMODULER

CCFDSATELLITEOG

KBTWSHODRSLAEJQ

ETSANYFIIDLIERM

TIIRSPDREIZQCHD

This grid is wider and taller than its box. Slide it to see every letter.To drag, hold the first letter for a moment, then slide.Keyboard: Tab to the grid, arrow keys to move, Enter on the first and last letter.

SputnikSPUTNIK
SatelliteSATELLITE
OrbitORBIT
Cold WarCOLD WAR
NASANASA
AstronautASTRONAUT
CosmonautCOSMONAUT
VostokVOSTOK
MercuryMERCURY
CapsuleCAPSULE
ApolloAPOLLO
MoonMOON
Lunar ModuleLUNAR MODULE
RocketROCKET
LaunchLAUNCH

15 words from the Space Race list.

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Answer key: Space Race Word Search

NASAPIDCMKERCTA

CAPOXAZAONOXFAK

PDUVBHTPOLHCWPK

OITOONNSNAQADOO

RGNSIOFUEUESCLT

BLITDLNLINRTTLH

IHKOMKMERCURYOA

TVDKRDETYHPOTNY

SAZCROARIHINBCV

RROOICOSMONAUTZ

OSALUNARMODULER

CCFDSATELLITEOG

KBTWSHODRSLAEJQ

ETSANYFIIDLIERM

TIIRSPDREIZQCHD

SPUTNIK, SATELLITE, ORBIT, COLD WAR, NASA, ASTRONAUT, COSMONAUT, VOSTOK, MERCURY, CAPSULE, APOLLO, MOON, LUNAR MODULE, ROCKET, LAUNCH

Next step Make a puzzle from your own unit's words Scramble these Space Race words

All 148 words

Sputnik and the First Satellites 31

Agency A government office with one job to do.
Antenna A rod that sends out radio waves. Sputnik 1 had four.
Atlas The rocket that put the first American into orbit in February 1962.
Baikonur The launch site in Kazakhstan that sent up Sputnik 1 and Vostok 1.
Beep The sound of the first satellite on the radio, over and over.
Belka One of two dogs that circled Earth and came home safe in August 1960.
Canaveral The Florida cape where the first American satellite and the first American astronauts left Earth.
Cold War The tense rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, usually dated from 1947 to 1991.
Echo A balloon satellite of 1960. Radio signals bounced off it from California to New Jersey.
Explorer Name of the first American satellite, launched from Florida on January 31, 1958.
Geophysical The International ___ Year ran from July 1957 to December 1958. Both rivals planned a satellite for it.
Kazakhstan The Central Asian land where the Soviet launch site of Baikonur stands.
Laika The dog aboard Sputnik 2 in November 1957, the first animal to circle Earth.

Show all 148 words (135 more)

Sputnik and the First Satellites, continued

Missile A rocket built as a weapon. The R-7 that lifted Sputnik was designed as one.
NASA The American civilian space agency. It began work on October 1, 1958.
Orbit The curved path of one object around another in space.
Radiation Explorer 1 found belts of it trapped around Earth.
Redstone The Army rocket that lifted the first two American astronauts on short hops in 1961.
Rivalry A lasting contest between two sides that each want to be first.
Satellite An object that circles a planet. The Moon is a natural one.
Semyorka Nickname of the Soviet R-7 rocket. In Russian it means number seven.
Signal A message sent by radio. Sputnik sent its own for three weeks, until the batteries ran down.
Soviet Union The country, with Russia at its center, that launched the first satellite.
Space Age The era that opened when the first satellite reached orbit in 1957.
Space Race The name for the contest between the United States and the Soviet Union to be first beyond Earth.
Sphere A ball shape. Sputnik 1 was a polished metal one 58 centimeters across.
Sputnik The first satellite made by people. It went up from the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957.
Superpower A country far stronger than most. This contest had two.
Tiros The first weather satellite put to regular work. The United States launched it on April 1, 1960.
Titan The rocket that launched the two-person Gemini crews.
Vanguard American satellite project. Its first try at orbit failed at the launch site on December 6, 1957.

First People in Space 28

Agena Uncrewed target craft that Gemini crews practiced linking up with.
Astronaut An American space traveler. NASA presented its first group in 1959.
Capsule The small sealed cabin a crew rides in.
Centrifuge A spinning arm that presses trainees into their seats the way a launch does.
Chimpanzee Ham, one of these, rode a Mercury capsule on January 31, 1961 and came back safe.
Cosmonaut A Soviet or Russian space traveler. The first flew in April 1961.
Crew The people who fly together on one craft.
Docking Joining two craft in orbit. Gemini 8 did it first, on March 16, 1966.
Freedom With a 7 after it, the capsule of the first American in space, on May 5, 1961.
Friendship With a 7 after it, the capsule that took the first American around Earth on February 20, 1962.
Gemini American program whose two-astronaut capsules flew crews in 1965 and 1966.
Heat Shield The layer that keeps a capsule from burning up on the way home.
Liberty Bell With a 7 after it, the second American capsule to carry an astronaut, on July 21, 1961.
Mercury America's first program to put people in space. It ran from 1958 to 1963.
Parachute It slows a falling capsule. The first cosmonaut left his craft and came down under his own.
Reentry The fiery return from space through the air.
Rendezvous Two craft meeting in orbit. Gemini 6A and Gemini 7 did it first, in December 1965.
Retrorocket A small engine fired to slow a craft and bring it out of orbit.
Seven How many astronauts NASA presented on April 9, 1959.
Spacewalk Leaving the craft in a suit. The first, on March 18, 1965, lasted about 12 minutes.
Splashdown A capsule's landing in the ocean.
Star City The place near Moscow where cosmonauts have lived and trained since the 1960s.
Suborbital A flight that reaches space and comes back down without circling Earth.
Test Pilot The job all of the first American astronauts had held.
Voskhod Soviet craft. One flew three men in 1964. From the next came the first spacewalk, in 1965.
Vostok Soviet capsule that carried the first person around Earth on April 12, 1961.
Weightless How a crew feels in orbit, floating free in the cabin.
Woman The first one in space flew aboard Vostok 6 in June 1963.

Probes to the Moon and Planets 22

Camera What Luna 3 used to picture the Moon's hidden half.
Far Side The half of the Moon never seen from Earth. Luna 3 photographed it first, in 1959.
Flyby A pass close to a world without stopping.
Impact Hitting a surface at speed, as Luna 2 did.
Lander A craft built to set down on another world.
Luna Soviet Moon probes. Number 2 was launched in September 1959 and struck the Moon.
Lunokhod Soviet robot rover. The first reached the Moon in November 1970.
Mariner American probes. Number 2 flew past Venus in 1962 and number 4 past Mars in 1965.
Mars The planet whose surface Mariner 4 photographed up close in July 1965.
Photograph Explorer 6 took the first one of Earth from a satellite, on August 14, 1959.
Planet A world that circles a star.
Probe A craft with no crew, sent to study space.
Ranger American probes that sent close-up pictures as they dived at the Moon. Number 7 worked first, in 1964.
Robot A machine that can do a job with no person aboard.
Rover A wheeled craft that drives across another world.
Sample A small amount to study. Luna 16 brought one of Moon soil to Earth in September 1970, with no crew.
Soft Landing Touching down gently enough to keep working. Luna 9 did it first on the Moon, on February 3, 1966.
Surveyor American robot landers. The first set down gently on the Moon on June 2, 1966.
Tortoise Two of these reptiles went around the Moon aboard Zond 5 in September 1968.
Venera Soviet probes to Venus. Number 7 landed there on December 15, 1970.
Venus The first planet, other than Earth, where a spacecraft made a soft landing.
Zond Soviet craft sent around the Moon with no crew. Number 5 made the trip in September 1968.

The Race to the Moon 24

Apollo American program that landed astronauts on the Moon six times, from 1969 to 1972.
Booster The powerful first part of a rocket.
Broadcast Hundreds of millions of people watched the first Moon walk in a live one on television.
Command Module The Apollo cabin built to carry three astronauts toward the Moon and home to an ocean landing.
Congress The lawmakers a president asked on May 25, 1961 to back a Moon landing.
Countdown Counting backward to zero before a rocket goes.
Decade Ten years. The deadline for the Moon goal was the end of the 1960s.
Eagle Call sign of the craft that set two men on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
Earthrise Photo of Earth above the Moon's horizon, taken from Apollo 8 in December 1968.
Engine The part of a rocket that makes its push. The first stage of the Saturn V had five.
Fuel What an engine burns.
Goal The thing you aim for.
Launch To send a rocket into the sky.
Liftoff The instant a rocket rises from its pad.
Lunar Module The two-stage craft that carried two Apollo astronauts down to the surface and back up.
Mission One planned flight with a goal.
Moon The goal a president set in 1961: land a person there before the decade was out.
Rocket An engine that pushes forward by blasting gas backward. It works in empty space.
Saturn With a V after it, the three-stage rocket that launched Apollo crews.
Soyuz Soviet crew craft first flown with a cosmonaut in April 1967. Later versions still fly.
Stage One section of a rocket. It drops away when its fuel is spent.
Thrust The push of a rocket engine.
Tranquility The Sea of ___ is where the first crew landed on the Moon.
Twelve How many people have walked on the Moon.

Science and Schools 24

Blueprint A detailed drawing that shows how to build something.
Budget A plan for how much money to spend.
Computer A machine that calculates fast by following instructions.
Crisis The alarm in the West after the first satellite is called the Sputnik ___.
Curriculum The set of subjects a school teaches.
Education The National Defense ___ Act of 1958 sent federal money to American schools and colleges.
Engineer A person who designs and builds machines such as rockets.
Gap The missile ___ was the American fear that the Soviet Union had pulled ahead in rockets.
Headline The big words at the top of a news story.
Laboratory A room set up for experiments.
Mathematics The study of numbers and shapes, needed to plot an orbit.
Moonwatch Operation ___ signed up volunteers with telescopes to spot the first satellites.
Physics The science of motion, force and energy.
Prestige The respect a country earns by being first.
Radio Amateur operators picked up the first satellite's signal on theirs.
Science Knowledge about nature, built by observing and testing.
Scientist A person who studies nature by testing ideas.
Slide Rule A stick with moving scales, used for quick math before pocket calculators.
Student Someone who is learning.
Technology Tools and machines made by using science.
Telemetry Measurements a craft radios back to the ground.
Television How people around the world watched the first Moon walk.
Tracking Following a satellite across the sky by radio or by eye.
Volunteer A person who helps without pay.

From Rivals to Partners 19

Cooperation Working together.
Detente An easing of tension between rival countries. One between the two rivals began in 1969.
English A language the Soviet crew spoke in orbit in July 1975.
Handshake On July 17, 1975 an American and a Soviet commander shared one in orbit.
Hatch The door between two joined craft.
International Involving many countries.
Joint Shared by two sides, like the flight of July 1975.
Mir Soviet space station whose first part went up in February 1986.
Module One section of a spacecraft.
Partner One who works with you.
Peaceful The 1967 space agreement limits the Moon to purposes of this kind.
Rival The other side in a contest.
Russian A language the American crew spoke in orbit in July 1975.
Salyut The first space station. The Soviet Union launched it on April 19, 1971.
Shuttle Partly reusable American craft that first flew on April 12, 1981.
Skylab America's first space station, launched on May 14, 1973.
Space Station A craft that stays in orbit so crews can live and work aboard.
Treaty A written agreement between countries. One of 1967 says no country can claim the Moon.
Workshop Skylab was an orbital one, built from the third stage of a Saturn V.

How this list was compiled: Own work: the 148 words and every meaning were written for this page. Dates, names and firsts were checked on October 16, 2026 against NASA's history pages (https://www.nasa.gov/project-mercury/, https://www.nasa.gov/gemini/, https://www.nasa.gov/the-apollo-program/, https://www.nasa.gov/apollo-soyuz-test-project/ and the Explorer 1 overview at https://www.nasa.gov/history/explorer-1-overview/) and English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race and the article on each craft, program and place named. Licence: own work

How it works

This Space Race word search hides 15 words: Sputnik, Satellite, Orbit, Astronaut, Cosmonaut, Apollo, Lunar Module and eight more. Six further lists follow the contest from the first satellite of 1957 to the handshake in orbit of 1975.

Read the full guide

Six lists, from Sputnik to the handshake

Start from a list splits the 148 words: Sputnik and the First Satellites (31) has Laika, Explorer and Baikonur; First People in Space (28) has Vostok, Friendship and Spacewalk; Probes to the Moon and Planets (22); The Race to the Moon (24); Science and Schools (24); From Rivals to Partners (19) has Salyut, Skylab and Handshake.

Meanings with dates

"Soviet capsule that carried the first person around Earth on April 12, 1961." is Vostok. "Joining two craft in orbit. Gemini 8 did it first, on March 16, 1966." is Docking. No person is a puzzle word. To add one, type Gagarin, Glenn or Armstrong on the last line of the list.

Easy Space Race keeps to 33 words of 3 to 5 letters, such as Orbit, Moon, Luna, Zond and Mir.
The grid drops spaces, so look for LUNARMODULE, COLDWAR, SPACERACE and HEATSHIELD.

Questions and answers

When did the Space Race start and end?

It is usually dated from 1955, when both countries said they would launch a satellite, to July 17, 1975, when an Apollo and a Soyuz docked in orbit. Sputnik's launch on October 4, 1957 brought it to public attention.

Who won the Space Race?

The Soviet Union was first with a satellite, an animal in orbit, a man and a woman in space and a spacewalk. The United States was first to land people on the Moon, on July 20, 1969. Which counts for more is a class discussion.

What was Sputnik?

The first artificial satellite: a polished metal sphere 58 centimeters across with four antennas, launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957. Its radio signal lasted three weeks.

What is the difference between an astronaut and a cosmonaut?

They do the same job. Astronaut is the American word and cosmonaut the Soviet and Russian one. Both are in the opening grid. For the first landing alone, print the moon landing word search.

All 148 words

Sputnik and the First Satellites 31

Sputnik and the First Satellites, continued

First People in Space 28

Probes to the Moon and Planets 22

The Race to the Moon 24

Science and Schools 24

From Rivals to Partners 19

How it works

Six lists, from Sputnik to the handshake

Meanings with dates

Questions and answers

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