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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. Who headed the design, development, and production panel of the commission?
(a) Mr. Acheson.
(b) General Kutyna.
(c) Mr. Sutter.
(d) Dr. Ride.

2. What color of cover did the commission vote on to have on the report?
(a) Green.
(b) Blue.
(c) Red.
(d) Black.

3. What job did the head of the investigation commission have that made Richard feel sorry for him?
(a) He was vice president to President Nixon.
(b) He was speaker of the House of Representatives.
(c) He was secretary of state for President Nixon.
(d) He was the secretary of defense for President Nixon.

4. In Check Six, Richard states that "tomorrow at 6:15" they were going to be briefed and go by special airplane to where?
(a) Thiokol.
(b) Kennedy Space Center.
(c) New York City.
(d) Texas.

5. How many computers does the shuttle have on board?
(a) Five.
(b) Three.
(c) Four.
(d) Six.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who was the head of the investigation commission of the Challenger accident?

2. What lingo did Mr. Fichtel say was used when all the conditions are satisfied and "we're ready to move to the next phase of the operation"?

3. Who was the former director of NASA who was removed from his job pending an investigation?

4. What was the name of the man who took the temperature readings the morning of the launch?

5. What chapter of the commission's report did Richard's group do their main work on?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who does Richard describe in Meet The Press as working "like demons" and why were they working "like demons"?

2. Richard received a call from General Kutyna one day telling him that he had some urgent news for him. What was the urgent news that General Kutyna was referring to?

3. The shuttle's computers don't have enough memory to hold all the programs for the whole flight, so what has to happen?

4. What was the main thing Richard said he learned during the first official meeting of the commission?

5. Why are the brakes on the shuttle controlled by the computers instead of the astronauts?

6. What did one of the reporters from the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour say to Richard that provided an "out" for the situation he put himself in by mistakenly providing the reporters with a copy of his report?

7. What did the JPL engineers tell Richard that some of the people that worked on the engines always did on each flight?

8. After Richard was done speaking to General Kutyna at the Pentagon, what did he do for the rest of the day?

9. When Richard had his press conference at Caltech, what did he find himself telling reporters over and over?

10. What did Mr. Rogers say to members of the commission about being careful with "these people, whose careers depend on us"?

(see the answer keys)

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