1. Explain what is meant by the rocket was “temperamental.”
2. Explain what the success of the Mercury capsule depended upon.
3. Explain why Project Mercury’s launch was pushed back from lat 1960 to July 1961 and then to 1962.
4. the characteristics of the astronaut chosen to make America’s first orbital flight.
5. Explain John Glenn’s response to the electronic computers.
6. Explain the significance of having the entire mission broadcast on live television.
7. Explain the immediate contributions Katherine Johnson was in a position to make to the Mercury Mission.
8. Katherine Johnson was usually so confident. Explain why she was nervous about checking the numbers for a real mission.
9. Explain why John Glen had to switch the capsule to manual during the first orbit of his flight.
10. Explain Mission Control’s solution to the problem that came up during the end of the second orbit.
11. Explain why everyone feared the worst at four hours and 33 minutes of Friendship 7’s mission.
12. Katherine Johnson only allowed herself a moment of pride. Explain what this says about her character.
Chapter 21 Out of the Past,
The Future
On Feb. 20. 1962, millions of Americans watched via television as astronaut John Glenn, strapped inside the spacecraft he named Friendship 7, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 14 on the Mercury Atlas-6 mission. During the four-hour, 55-minute flight, Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth.
