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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. Which two astronauts are selected to be the backup astronauts?
(a) Wally Schirra and John Glenn.
(b) John Glenn and Gus Grissom.
(c) Alan Shepard and John Glenn.
(d) Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom.

2. Who is a part of the "new breed" of Air Force pilots?
(a) Neil Armstrong.
(b) James Webb.
(c) Chuck Yeager.
(d) Joe Walker.

3. Shepard is strapped so tightly into the capsule that he can't feel the weightlessness he knows he is experiencing. What item floats in front of him in the capsule?
(a) An oxygen hose.
(b) A washer.
(c) A replacement battery.
(d) A rivet.

4. After countless delays and several launch attempts, on what day is the manned flight finally launched?
(a) January 23, 1062.
(b) February 20, 1962.
(c) January 1, 1963.
(d) April 1, 1962.

5. What is significant about Cooper's flight?
(a) It is the last scheduled Mercury flight.
(b) It will be the shortest duration flight.
(c) It will be the first flight of the Apollo program.
(d) It will orbit the moon.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is given to Shepard by President Kennedy?

2. How far away from the intended splash zone does the capsule land?

3. Who is in charge of crew selection?

4. When the men return from their trip to the White House, what question is on the mind of each of their wives?

5. After being grounded, what is Deke Slayton's new role in NASA?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Why does Grissom's suit not keep him buoyant when he is awaiting rescue in the ocean?

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

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

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

7. What becomes an immutable part of the flight day drill for the astronaut's wife?

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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