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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. After the Russian flight, NASA scrubbed the remainder of the planned Mercury flights using Redstone rockets. What is the next flight to attempt?
(a) A moon landing.
(b) A rocket launch with a plane landing.
(c) Dropping bombs from space.
(d) Orbital flight.

2. Which of the astronauts place a sign inside the capsule reading "No handball playing in this area" to help keep Shepard relaxed and loose?
(a) Gus Grissom.
(b) John Glenn.
(c) Gordon Cooper.
(d) Deke Slayton.

3. What is President Kennedy obsessed with?
(a) Defeating the Cubans.
(b) Catching up with the Russians in the space race.
(c) Dismantling Project Mercury.
(d) Promoting his space advisor to NASA's head.

4. Why is Deke Slayton grounded?
(a) Failing eyesight.
(b) Poor hearing.
(c) A minor heart defect.
(d) Attitude problems.

5. What is the new moon program called?
(a) Luna.
(b) Mercury 2.
(c) Apollo.
(d) Project B.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is a part of the "new breed" of Air Force pilots?

2. At the end of the book, what major political change occurs?

3. What is the AWC?

4. The next manned space flight occurs in 1965 and the space program continues still today. Yet one thing was lost from the original Mercury program and still remains different today. What it is?

5. John Glenn's flight and his taking on "the mighty Soviet Integral" causes comparisons with what Biblical story?

Short Essay Questions

1. The seven original Mercury astronauts receive the Iven C. Kincheloe Award for outstanding professional performance in the conduct of test flight from the Society for Experimental Test Pilots. What does receiving this award mean to the astronauts?

2. What worries the astronauts the most about Project Mercury potentially losing funding?

3. When Bob Gilruth calls the astronauts together for an emergency meeting just before Christmas, what is the purpose of the meeting?

4. What irks the Original Seven wives about the Next Nine wives?

5. The evening before the second Mercury flight, Joe Walker runs into Gus Grissom. Walker tries to get Grissom's goat by insisting that the X-15 program will soon pass the Mercury program and that he and the other Edwards pilots are the "real" pilots. Why do these remarks not bother Grissom at all?

6. In Chapter 15, what does John Glenn argue with James Webb about?

7. During an international space conference attended by the Russians to publicize their successes in space, what reassuring fact does the United States learn?

8. What does Grissom say to the second group of astronauts to keep them in their place?

9. What is the effect on Shepard of having so many pre-flight simulations?

10. Why does Webb declare Cooper's flight to be the last of the Mercury program?

(see the answer keys)

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