romikgosai/squad_modified_2 huggingface dataset:
Gagarin's flight changed this; now Kennedy sensed the humiliation and fear on the part of the American public over the Soviet lead. He sent a memo dated April 20, 1961, to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, asking him to look into the state of America's space program, and into programs that could offer NASA the opportunity to catch up. The two major options at the time seemed to be, either establishment of an Earth orbital space station, or a manned landing on the Moon. Johnson in turn consulted with von Braun, who answered Kennedy's questions based on his estimates of US and Soviet rocket lifting capability. Based on this, Johnson responded to Kennedy, concluding that much more was needed to reach a position of leadership, and recommending that the manned Moon landing was far enough in the future that the US had a fighting chance to achieve it first.

Q1: President Kennedy sent a letter on April 20, 1961 to who about the US's space program?
A1: Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson
Kennedy ultimately decided to pursue what became the Apollo program, and on May 25 took the opportunity to ask for Congressional support in a Cold War speech titled "Special Message on Urgent National Needs". Full text

Q1: The speech by Kennedy, "Special Message on Urgent National Needs" was delivered on what date?
A1: May 25
He justified the program in terms of its importance to national security, and its focus of the nation's energies on other scientific and social fields. He rallied popular support for the program in his "We choose to go to the Moon" speech, on September 12, 1962, before a large crowd at Rice University Stadium, in Houston, Texas, near the construction site of the new Manned Spacecraft Center facility. Full text

Q1: "We choose to go to the Moon" speech was given at what location in Texas?
A1: Rice University Stadium
American Virgil "Gus" Grissom repeated Shepard's suborbital flight in Liberty Bell 7 on July 21, 1961. Almost a year after the Soviet Union put a human into orbit, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, on February 20, 1962. His Mercury-Atlas 6 mission completed three orbits in the Friendship 7 spacecraft, and splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean, after a tense reentry, due to what falsely appeared from the telemetry data to be a loose heat-shield. As the first American in orbit, Glenn became a national hero, and received a ticker-tape parade in New York City, reminiscent of that given for Charles Lindbergh. On February 23, 1962, President Kennedy escorted him in a parade at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where he awarded Glenn with the NASA service medal.

Q1: The first American to orbit around the planet was whom?
A1: John Glenn
Q2: When did John Glenn orbit the Earth?
A2: February 20, 1962
Q3: Where did John Glenn land on Earth after coming back from orbit?
A3: Atlantic Ocean
Q4: John Glenn's spaceship was named what when he orbited the Earth?
A4: Friendship 7
The United States launched three more Mercury flights after Glenn's: Aurora 7 on May 24, 1962 duplicated Glenn's three orbits; Sigma 7 on October 3, 1962, six orbits; and Faith 7 on May 15, 1963, 22 orbits (32.4 hours), the maximum capability of the spacecraft. NASA at first intended to launch one more mission, extending the spacecraft's endurance to three days, but since this would not beat the Soviet record, it was decided instead to concentrate on developing Project Gemini.

Q1: How many more Mercury missions were there after John Glenn's?
A1: 3
Gherman Titov became the first Soviet cosmonaut to exercise manual control of his Vostok 2 craft on August 6, 1961. The Soviet Union demonstrated 24-hour launch pad turnaround and the capability to launch two piloted spacecraft, Vostok 3 and Vostok 4, in essentially identical orbits, on August 11 and 12, 1962. The two spacecraft came within approximately 6.5 kilometers (4.0 mi) of one another, close enough for radio communication. Vostok 4 also set a record of nearly four days in space. Though the two craft's orbits were as nearly identical as possible given the accuracy of the launch rocket's guidance system, slight variations still existed which drew the two craft at first as close to each other as 6.5 kilometers (3.5 nautical miles), then as far apart as 2,850 kilometers (1,540 nautical miles). There were no maneuvering rockets on the Vostok to permit space rendezvous, required to keep two spacecraft a controlled distance apart.

Q1: What first person from the USSR controlled their own spacecraft?
A1: Gherman Titov
Q2: Gherman Titov from the USSR drove his own spacecraft on what date?
A2: August 6, 1961
Q3: Radio communication was possible between which two spacecrafts in August 11 and 12, 1962?
A3: Vostok 3 and Vostok 4
The Soviet Union duplicated its dual-launch feat with Vostok 5 and Vostok 6 (June 16, 1963). This time they launched the first woman (also the first civilian), Valentina Tereshkova, into space on Vostok 6. Launching a woman was reportedly Korolev's idea, and it was accomplished purely for propaganda value. Tereshkova was one of a small corps of female cosmonauts who were amateur parachutists, but Tereshkova was the only one to fly. The USSR didn't again open its cosmonaut corps to women until 1980, two years after the United States opened its astronaut corps to women.

Q1: The first woman that went into space was whom?
A1: Valentina Tereshkova
Q2: What spacecraft carried  Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space?
A2: Vostok 6
Q3: The first woman to launch into space was on what date?
A3: June 16, 1963
Q4: The first woman to go into space was from which country?
A4: The USSR
The Soviets kept the details and true appearance of the Vostok capsule secret until the April 1965 Moscow Economic Exhibition, where it was first displayed without its aerodynamic nose cone concealing the spherical capsule. The "Vostok spaceship" had been first displayed at the July 1961 Tushino air show, mounted on its launch vehicle's third stage, with the nose cone in place. A tail section with eight fins was also added, in an apparent attempt to confuse western observers. This spurious tail section also appeared on official commemorative stamps and a documentary.

Q1: At what event was the Vostok spaceship first displayed to the public ?
A1: July 1961 Tushino air show
On September 20, 1963, in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly, President Kennedy proposed that the United States and the Soviet Union join forces in their efforts to reach the Moon. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev initially rejected Kennedy's proposal.

Q1: When did US President John F. Kennedy, in a speech, propose to join forces to reach the moon with the USSR?
A1: September 20, 1963
On October 2, 1997, it was reported that Khrushchev's son Sergei claimed Khrushchev was poised to accept Kennedy's proposal at the time of Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963. During the next few weeks he reportedly concluded that both nations might realize cost benefits and technological gains from a joint venture, and decided to accept Kennedy's offer based on a measure of rapport during their years as leaders of the world's two superpowers, but changed his mind and dropped the idea since he did not have the same trust for Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson.

Q1: President Kennedy was killed when?
A1: November 22, 1963
Q2: How did US President Kennedy die?
A2: assassination
As President, Johnson steadfastly pursued the Gemini and Apollo programs, promoting them as Kennedy's legacy to the American public. One week after Kennedy's death, he issued an executive order renaming the Cape Canaveral and Apollo launch facilities after Kennedy.

Q1: What two locations in Florida were renamed after Kennedy by President Johnson?
A1: Cape Canaveral and Apollo launch facilities
Q2: Which two space programs were heavily worked on by President Johnson?
A2: Gemini and Apollo
Focused by the commitment to a Moon landing, in January 1962 the US announced Project Gemini, a two-man spacecraft that would support the later three-man Apollo by developing the key spaceflight technologies of space rendezvous and docking of two craft, flight durations of sufficient length to simulate going to the Moon and back, and extra-vehicular activity to accomplish useful work outside the spacecraft.

Q1: What year was the Gemini project confirmed?
A1: 1962
Q2: How many people could the Gemini project carry?
A2: 2
The greater advances of the Soviet space program at the time allowed their space program to achieve other significant firsts, including the first EVA "spacewalk" and the first mission performed by a crew in shirt-sleeves. Gemini took a year longer than planned to accomplish its first flight, allowing the Soviets to achieve another first, launching Voskhod 1 on October 12, 1964, the first spacecraft with a three-cosmonaut crew. The USSR touted another technological achievement during this mission: it was the first space flight during which cosmonauts performed in a shirt-sleeve-environment. However, flying without spacesuits was not due to safety improvements in the Soviet spacecraft's environmental systems; rather this innovation was accomplished because the craft's limited cabin space did not allow for spacesuits. Flying without spacesuits exposed the cosmonauts to significant risk in the event of potentially fatal cabin depressurization. This feat would not be repeated until the US Apollo Command Module flew in 1968; this later mission was designed from the outset to safely transport three astronauts in a shirt-sleeve environment while in space.

Q1: On what date was the first successful three man astronaut crew?
A1: October 12, 1964
Q2: The first flight in a spacecraft that allowed no suits to be worn inside was was?
A2: Voskhod 1
Q3: The US Apollo Command Module flew without spacesuits in what year?
A3: 1968
Between October 14–16, 1964, Leonid Brezhnev and a small cadre of high-ranking Communist Party officials, deposed Khrushchev as Soviet government leader a day after Voskhod 1 landed, in what was called the "Wednesday conspiracy". The new political leaders, along with Korolev, ended the technologically troublesome Voskhod program, cancelling Voskhod 3 and 4, which were in the planning stages, and started concentrating on the race to the Moon. Voskhod 2 would end up being Korolev's final achievement before his death on January 14, 1966, as it would become the last of the many space firsts that demonstrated the USSR's domination in spacecraft technology during the early 1960s. According to historian Asif Siddiqi, Korolev's accomplishments marked "the absolute zenith of the Soviet space program, one never, ever attained since." There would be a two-year pause in Soviet piloted space flights while Voskhod's replacement, the Soyuz spacecraft, was designed and developed.

Q1: Korolev died on what date?
A1: January 14, 1966
On March 18, 1965, about a week before the first American piloted Project Gemini space flight, the USSR accelerated the competition, by launching the two-cosmonaut Voskhod 2 mission with Pavel Belyayev and Alexey Leonov. Voskhod 2's design modifications included the addition of an inflatable airlock to allow for extravehicular activity (EVA), also known as a spacewalk, while keeping the cabin pressurized so that the capsule's electronics wouldn't overheat. Leonov performed the first-ever EVA as part of the mission. A fatality was narrowly avoided when Leonov's spacesuit expanded in the vacuum of space, preventing him from re-entering the airlock. In order to overcome this, he had to partially depressurize his spacesuit to a potentially dangerous level. He succeeded in safely re-entering the ship, but he and Belyayev faced further challenges when the spacecraft's atmospheric controls flooded the cabin with 45% pure oxygen, which had to be lowered to acceptable levels before re-entry. The reentry involved two more challenges: an improperly timed retrorocket firing caused the Voskhod 2 to land 386 kilometers (240 mi) off its designated target area, the town of Perm; and the instrument compartment's failure to detach from the descent apparatus caused the spacecraft to become unstable during reentry.

Q1: The Voskhod 2 carrying two humans was launched on what date?
A1: March 18, 1965
Q2: Who was the first person to take a spacewalk?
A2: Alexey Leonov
Q3: Which of two Voskhod 2's occupants was almost killed?
A3: Alexey Leonov
Most of the novice pilots on the early missions would command the later missions. In this way, Project Gemini built up spaceflight experience for the pool of astronauts who would be chosen to fly the Apollo lunar missions.

Q1: Project Gemini helped recruit experienced people for which upcoming lunar missions?
A1: Apollo
The circumlunar program (Zond), created by Vladimir Chelomey's design bureau OKB-52, was to fly two cosmonauts in a stripped-down Soyuz 7K-L1, launched by Chelomey's Proton UR-500 rocket. The Zond sacrificed habitable cabin volume for equipment, by omitting the Soyuz orbital module. Chelomey gained favor with Khruschev by employing members of his family.

Q1: Who created the circumlunar program called Zond?
A1: Vladimir Chelomey
Q2: Which type of craft were two astronauts to fly in during Zond?
A2: Soyuz 7K-L1
Korolev's lunar landing program was designated N1/L3, for its N1 superbooster and a more advanced Soyuz 7K-L3 spacecraft, also known as the lunar orbital module ("Lunniy Orbitalny Korabl", LOK), with a crew of two. A separate lunar lander ("Lunniy Korabl", LK), would carry a single cosmonaut to the lunar surface.

Q1: The "Lunniy Korabl" or "LK" would carry how many people?
A1: N1
The US and USSR began discussions on the peaceful uses of space as early as 1958, presenting issues for debate to the United Nations, which created a Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in 1959.

Q1: The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space was established in what year?
A1: 1959
Q2: The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space was created by what organization in 1959?
A2: United Nations
On May 10, 1962, Vice President Johnson addressed the Second National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space revealing that the United States and the USSR both supported a resolution passed by the Political Committee of the UN General Assembly on December 1962, which not only urged member nations to "extend the rules of international law to outer space," but to also cooperate in its exploration. Following the passing of this resolution, Kennedy commenced his communications proposing a cooperative American/Soviet space program.

Q1: A problem was resolved by whom when both the US and the USSR supported a cooperative space program?
A1: Political Committee of the UN General Assembly
Q2: The cooperative space program was passed on what date?
A2: December 1962
The UN ultimately created a Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, which was signed by the United States, USSR, and the United Kingdom on January 27, 1967 and went into force the following October 10.

Q1: The Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space was signed by three countries on what date?
A1: January 27, 1967
In 1967, both nations faced serious challenges that brought their programs to temporary halts. Both had been rushing at full-speed toward the first piloted flights of Apollo and Soyuz, without paying due diligence to growing design and manufacturing problems. The results proved fatal to both pioneering crews.

Q1: Both crews were killed on which spacecraft missions in 1967?
A1: Apollo and Soyuz
On January 27, 1967, the same day the US and USSR signed the Outer Space Treaty, the crew of the first manned Apollo mission, Command Pilot Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward H. White, and Pilot Roger Chaffee, were killed in a fire that swept through their spacecraft cabin during a ground test, less than a month before the planned February 21 launch. An investigative board determined the fire was probably caused by an electrical spark, and quickly grew out of control, fed by the spacecraft's pure oxygen atmosphere. Crew escape was made impossible by inability to open the plug door hatch cover against the greater-than-atmospheric internal pressure. The board also found design and construction flaws in the spacecraft, and procedural failings, including failure to appreciate the hazard of the pure-oxygen atmosphere, as well as inadequate safety procedures. All these flaws had to be corrected over the next twenty-two months until the first piloted flight could be made. Mercury and Gemini veteran Grissom had been a favored choice of Deke Slayton, NASA's Director of Flight Crew Operations, to make the first piloted landing.

Q1: The Outer Space Treaty was signed by the US and the USSR on what date?
A1: January 27, 1967
Q2: What was the cause of the fire that killed everyone on the first Apollo mission before launch?
A2: electrical spark
Q3: Who were the three people who died on the first Apollo mission before launch?
A3: Command Pilot Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward H. White, and Pilot Roger Chaffee
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was having its own problems with Soyuz development. Engineers reported 200 design faults to party leaders, but their concerns "were overruled by political pressures for a series of space feats to mark the anniversary of Lenin's birthday."[citation needed] On April 24, 1967, the single pilot of Soyuz 1, Vladimir Komarov, became the first in-flight spaceflight fatality. The mission was planned to be a three-day test, to include the first Soviet docking with an unpiloted Soyuz 2, but the mission was plagued with problems. Early on, Komarov's craft lacked sufficient electrical power because only one of two solar panels had deployed. Then the automatic attitude control system began malfunctioning and eventually failed completely, resulting in the craft spinning wildly. Komarov was able to stop the spin with the manual system, which was only partially effective. The flight controllers aborted his mission after only one day. During the emergency re-entry, a fault in the landing parachute system caused the primary chute to fail, and the reserve chute became tangled with the drogue chute; Komarov was killed on impact. Fixing the spacecraft faults caused an eighteen-month delay before piloted Soyuz flights could resume.

Q1: Who was the person credited with the first in-flight space death?
A1: Vladimir Komarov
Q2: When did Vladimir Komarov die on impact from his spacecraft crash?
A2: April 24, 1967
The United States recovered from the Apollo 1 fire, fixing the fatal flaws in an improved version of the Block II command module. The US proceeded with unpiloted test launches of the Saturn V launch vehicle (Apollo 4 and Apollo 6) and the Lunar Module (Apollo 5) during the latter half of 1967 and early 1968. Apollo 1's mission to check out the Apollo Command/Service Module in Earth orbit was accomplished by Grissom's backup crew commanded by Walter Schirra on Apollo 7, launched on October 11, 1968. The eleven-day mission was a total success, as the spacecraft performed a virtually flawless mission, paving the way for the United States to continue with its lunar mission schedule.

Q1: Apollo 7 launched from Earth on what date?
A1: October 11, 1968
Q2: Who was in charge of the Apollo 7 mission on board?
A2: Walter Schirra
The Soviet Union also fixed the parachute and control problems with Soyuz, and the next piloted mission Soyuz 3 was launched on October 26, 1968. The goal was to complete Komarov's rendezvous and docking mission with the un-piloted Soyuz 2. Ground controllers brought the two craft to within 200 meters (660 ft) of each other, then cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy took control. He got within 40 meters (130 ft) of his target, but was unable to dock before expending 90 percent of his maneuvering fuel, due to a piloting error that put his spacecraft into the wrong orientation and forced Soyuz 2 to automatically turn away from his approaching craft. The first docking of Soviet spacecraft was finally realised in January 1969 by the Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 missions. It was the first-ever docking of two manned spacecraft, and the first transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another.

Q1: The Soyuz 3 began its mission to space on what date?
A1: October 26, 1968
Q2: When was the first successful docking of a two man space crew?
A2: January 1969
Q3: Which two space missions were the first to successfully dock each other?
A3: Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5
The Soviet Zond spacecraft was not yet ready for piloted circumlunar missions in 1968, after five unsuccessful and partially successful automated test launches: Cosmos 146 on March 10, 1967; Cosmos 154 on April 8, 1967; Zond 1967A September 27, 1967; Zond 1967B on November 22, 1967. Zond 4 was launched on March 2, 1968, and successfully made a circumlunar flight. After its successful flight around the Moon, Zond 4 encountered problems with its Earth reentry on March 9, and was ordered destroyed by an explosive charge 15,000 meters (49,000 ft) over the Gulf of Guinea. The Soviet official announcement said that Zond 4 was an automated test flight which ended with its intentional destruction, due to its recovery trajectory positioning it over the Atlantic Ocean instead of over the USSR.

Q1: Where was the Zond 4 over when it was destroyed by an explosion?
A1: Gulf of Guinea
During the summer of 1968, the Apollo program hit another snag: the first pilot-rated Lunar Module (LM) was not ready for orbital tests in time for a December 1968 launch. NASA planners overcame this challenge by changing the mission flight order, delaying the first LM flight until March 1969, and sending Apollo 8 into lunar orbit without the LM in December. This mission was in part motivated by intelligence rumors the Soviet Union might be ready for a piloted Zond flight during late 1968. In September 1968, Zond 5 made a circumlunar flight with tortoises on board and returned to Earth, accomplishing the first successful water landing of the Soviet space program in the Indian Ocean. It also scared NASA planners, as it took them several days to figure out that it was only an automated flight, not piloted, because voice recordings were transmitted from the craft en route to the Moon. On November 10, 1968 another automated test flight, Zond 6 was launched, but this time encountered difficulties in its Earth reentry, and depressurized and deployed its parachute too early, causing it to crash-land only 16 kilometers (9.9 mi) from where it had been launched six days earlier. It turned out there was no chance of a piloted Soviet circumlunar flight during 1968, due to the unreliability of the Zonds.

Q1: The first successful water landing in the Indian Ocean by the Soviets was was when?
A1: 1968
Q2: What animal was carried aboard the  Zond 5?
A2: tortoises
Q3: The first Lunar Module was delayed to what date?
A3: March 1969
On December 21, 1968, Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders became the first humans to ride the Saturn V rocket into space on Apollo 8. They also became the first to leave low-Earth orbit and go to another celestial body, and entered lunar orbit on December 24. They made ten orbits in twenty hours, and transmitted one of the most watched TV broadcasts in history, with their Christmas Eve program from lunar orbit, that concluded with a reading from the biblical Book of Genesis. Two and a half hours after the broadcast, they fired their engine to perform the first trans-Earth injection to leave lunar orbit and return to the Earth. Apollo 8 safely landed in the Pacific ocean on December 27, in NASA's first dawn splashdown and recovery.

Q1: Which three people were the first to ride the Saturn V rocket into space?
A1: Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders
Q2: What date did Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders leave Earth on the Apollo 8 mission?
A2: December 21, 1968
Q3: During what holiday, was the Apollo 8 mission broadcast from orbit?
A3: Christmas Eve
Q4: Which ocean did the Apolo 8 mission land in?
A4: Pacific