View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What is the pervading feeling as the launch approaches?
(a) We can do this.
(b) This time it will work.
(c) The Russians already beat us. Why bother?
(d) Our boys always botch it.

3. As he sits in the capsule waiting to be launched into space, what is Shepard most afraid of?
(a) Being crushed by the g forces.
(b) Urinating in his pressurized suit.
(c) Screwing something up.
(d) Blowing up on the launch pad.

4. What kind of rocket launches the first Mercury capsule?
(a) Atlas rocket.
(b) Redstone rocket.
(c) Canaveral rocket.
(d) X-21 rocket.

5. Why are the Edward's pilots miffed by NASA's treatment of Grissom after the mistake in the capsule?
(a) NASA gives Grissom a $20,000 bonus.
(b) NASA doesn't punish Grissom.
(c) NASA sends Grissom to the White House.
(d) NASA provides extensive interview opportunities to Grissom.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the Air Force award to their pilots who fly at altitudes over fifty miles?

2. Why is Alan Shepard grounded?

3. The first "manned" space flight by Russia does not have a man aboard. What living thing do the Russians send into space?

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. How does Slayton refer to NASA's decision in statements to the press?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

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

3. Why does Walter Cronkite tell the American people that he is afraid that we may have lost an astronaut?

4. Why do neither John Glenn nor his wife, Annie, foresee the excitement that John's flight will cause?

5. The wives had barely started getting settled into their new homes in Houston when something extraordinary starts happening. What is it?

6. Why is Betty Grissom so upset at the treatment of Gus after his flight?

7. Why does the next group of astronauts selected contain fourteen trainees instead of the intended eleven trainees?

8. Why is there a certain danger in scrapping the Redstone rocket in favor of the Atlas rockets?

9. What reaction does the American public have to the chimpanzee's flight?

10. Why does NASA select the primary pilot and two backups with a few weeks to go before the launch instead of selecting the primary pilot the day before the launch as is originally planned?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 935 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample