"The Right Stuff" Part 2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Liberty Bell 7

This was the capsule that was lost at sea on Gus Grissom's flight. It was recovered on July 20, 1999, and put on display at the Kansas Cosmosphere, where scientists took it apart down to the smallest bolt to restore it, before sending it on a ten year tour of the world.
Friendship 7 was John Glenn's
Freedom 7 was Al Shepard's
Sigma 7 was Wally Schirra's

Answer: A toy capsule

He took several of the dime-store toy capsules with him, along with a few rolls of dimes, to give out as mementos that had been in space. The movie implied that he was messing around with these things and set off the explosive bolts on the blow away hatch. NASA officials determined that it could have been an electrical short that set it off.

This is ironic because in the Apollo Program they took away the explosive hatch, and Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffe died due to an electrical short causing an explosion and fire in the 100% oxygen environment.

Answer: Donald "Deke" Slayton

After he was accepted into the Mercury Program, Deke was diagnosed with Artrial Fibrillation, and was grounded. He was able to overcome this problem with an intense vitamin regimen, and was restored to flight status in time to fly on the Apollo-Soyuz mission.

Answer: Carpenter and Schirra

Carpenter's flight had problems that were blamed on pilot error, and he overshot his landing zone by several hundred miles.
Schirra's flight was right on the mark. Ever the Navy man, Wally checked off every last item on his check list.
Lovell and Conrad flew in the Gemini and Apollo Programs. Conrad walked on the moon on Apollo 12 and Lovell was going to walk there on Apollo 13, but there was that whole disaster in space thing.

Answer: Stuttering

She was terrified to be on TV becaue of her stuttering problem, and also didn't like talking to people she didn't know well. This just enraged Vice-President Johnson, who then threw a temper tantrum in his limousine.

Answer: Spam in a can

Yeager used it on the NASA recruiters to emphasize that they would have no control over their craft. He later went back on that to say that they were all right, because they knew that they could die.

Answer: NF-104 Starfighter

This was the flight that he lost control of and had to "punch out" of. In the injection, some of the propellant from the ejector seat leaked out and got caught inside his helmet. It was like molten lava, and he was severely burnt on his face and hands.

These burns almost cost him his career, and did see him taken out of test flight status, and reassigned to command a fighter squadron. Incidentally - if he had taken the jet without permission he would have been sent to Leavenworth!

Answer: Trudy

Trudy was pivotal in Gordo being accepted into the Mercury Program, as she lied to the psych nurse, saying that Gordo was stable and level headed.
These were names of some of the Mercury 7 Astronaut Wives;
Betty Grissom, Louise Shepard, and Bobbie Slayton.
The others were; Anna Glenn, Josephine Schirra and Rene Carpenter.

Answer: Jose

It was based on the comedian Jose Jimenez, who made fun of the astronauts on Uncle Milty's show. Shepard thought that Jose was just the funniest thing he had ever heard, and would do the impression often. This was typical of Shepard, though he was also known as "The Icey Commander" due to his short fused temper.

Answer: Pushing the edge of the envelope

Yeager, after breaking the sound barrier, told Ridley that he would just push the edge of the envelope a little more and see where that demon lived. That demon being the one that would lock up your controls if you tried to go faster than the speed of sound.