First spacewalkers: who and when

What you’ll be tested on

From Alexei Leonov to Ed White and beyond, this quiz checks your knowledge of who performed landmark EVAs and when they happened. Expect a mix of astronaut/cosmonaut identification, mission context, and date recall.

Each question has 4 options and there’s no timer, so you can take a thoughtful, research-like approach or play quickly for recall practice.

Difficulty and how to play

Difficulty is balanced as “Mixed,” blending well-known firsts with less-remembered follow-ups and similar-sounding missions. You can also choose your preferred question count and difficulty before starting, making it easy to run a short warm-up or a full deep-dive.

Common pitfalls include mixing up the first EVA with the first US EVA, confusing mission numbers (Gemini vs Voskhod), and remembering the astronaut but not the exact date.

• Practice separating “first ever” from “first in a program/country” milestones
• Watch for near-identical mission names and numbering that cause easy mix-ups
• Use context clues (spacecraft type, era, agency) to narrow down dates
• Expect distractor options with plausible years or famous names from the same period
• Replaying helps lock in timelines by reinforcing the same key milestones in different ways

Tips to improve your score

If dates are your weak spot, focus on anchoring events to a few fixed points (program start years, major missions) and work outward. For names, group EVAs by program (Voskhod, Gemini, Apollo, Shuttle, ISS) to reduce confusion.