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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. When Chuck Yeager is interviewed by reporters in Phoenix, what do the reporters want to know about?
(a) The astronauts.
(b) How Yeager's family is.
(c) The sound barrier.
(d) The next plane Yeager will be testing.

2. Which of the astronauts commands the least star power?
(a) John Glenn.
(b) Scott Carpenter.
(c) Alan Shepard.
(d) Deke Slayton.

3. When the book begins, where is the Naval Air Station that Pete Conrad is stationed at?
(a) Nevada.
(b) California.
(c) Texas.
(d) Florida.

4. Which of the astronauts commands the most star power?
(a) Deke Slayton.
(b) Scott Carpenter.
(c) Alan Shepard.
(d) John Glenn.

5. Who is John Glenn's greatest ally in the debate over how the astronauts should conduct themselves?
(a) Deke Slayton.
(b) Scott Carpenter.
(c) Gordon Cooper.
(d) Gus Grissom.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the nickname given to Project Mercury by the top pilots at the base?

2. What is Jim Lovell's nickname?

3. How many test pilots are in the original group in Jacksonville?

4. When do the pilots wear their bridge coats?

5. By the end of the chapter, which one of the seven is beginning to assume the natural leadership role?

Short Essay Questions

1. The morning after the press conference, the newspapers are full of stories about the astronauts. What do the stories highlight?

2. In 1952 at Edwards Air Force Base, 62 Air Force pilots died in the course of a 36-week training session. In 11 weeks of combat training at Nellis Air Force Base, 22 pilot trainees were killed. In Pete Conrad's own class in Florida, 10 out of 20 had been killed. In the opinion of the pilots, these rates of death are considered "extraordinary," yet they really are not. Why?

3. What is the goal of the pilots in Project Mercury, which is the same goal in every new and important flight project?

4. What is the Konakai Séance?

5. Name three tests conducted at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on the pilots.

6. Why do the pilots come to hate Lovelace?

7. The engineers tend to feel that the glorification of the astronauts has really gotten out of control. Why do they feel that way?

8. What are John Glenn and Alan Shepard in serious disagreement about?

9. Contrast flight training with astronaut training.

10. In detailing the experiences of the astronauts, the author states that "everywhere they went in their travels people stopped what they were doing and gave them a certain look of awe and sympathy." Awe is easily understood. Why do they look at them with sympathy?

(see the answer keys)

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