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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is Cape Canaveral located?

2. What does "pushing the outside of the envelope" refer to?

3. What feature makes Pete Conrad different from a lot of other pilots?

4. Who is in charge of testing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base?

5. In what year does the story begin?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Contrast flight training with astronaut training.

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

4. Name two reasons that fighter pilots hate to declare an emergency.

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

6. Jane Conrad sees a real man going to her front door and realizes it wasn't one of her hallucinations. Who is the man and why is he there?

7. What does Chuck Yeager become convinced of as he pilots the X-1 at near-Mach I speeds?

8. Why do Chuck Yeager's comments in Phoenix almost set off a national scandal? What happens to avoid the scandal?

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

10. As the number of killed pilots rises, how does that affect the mood of Pete Conrad?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Six of the seven of the original Mercury astronauts eventually went up in a Mercury capsule before the program was discontinued in favor of the Gemini and Apollo programs.

a. What were the benefits of having an early flight? What were the drawbacks?

b. What were the benefits of having one of the last flights? What were the drawbacks?

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the book, the astronauts are compared with the pilots from Edwards Air Force Base. Compare and contrast these two groups in terms at the following times:

a. When Project Mercury was first being announced.

b. When Project Mercury was underway.

c. When Project Mercury was concluded.

Essay Topic 3

Identify and discuss the main political events that hastened the creation of Project Mercury.

a. What specifically occurred to speed up NASA's time frame for space travel?

b. What perceived threats resulted from these events?

c. How did the creation of Project Mercury address these perceived threats?

(see the answer keys)

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