Study the graph and read the passage from The Race to Space: Countdown to Liftoff Forty-five million viewers watched the live, televised event from home as Alan Shepard left the planet behind. As the rocket climbed into the atmosphere, Shepard felt seven g’s of force! (This means seven times the gravity of Earth.) With little control over his flight and only his instruments for visibility, Shepard was at the mercy of the engineers who had designed the hurtling hunk of metal. What central idea is emphasized in both sources? The amount of g-force an astronaut would experience at launch is minimal. The amount of g-force an astronaut would experience at launch is intense. The g-force an astronaut experiences at launch needs to be studied. The g-force an astronaut experienced at launch was less than planned.