November 11, 2004
Author to sign books about astronaut Gus Grissom
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Author Ray Boomhower will talk about his book "Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut" and sign copies from 3-5 p.m. Nov. 19 in Purdue's Memorial Union Anniversary Drawing Room.
Grissom graduated from Purdue in 1960 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. This book explores the astronaut's life from his childhood in Mitchell, Ind., through service as a combat pilot to his NASA career.
Boomhower explains the process by which NASA selected its original seven Mercury astronauts and the jostling for position to be the first American in space.
He also writes about the near-fatal Liberty Bell 7 flight in 1961. Grissom was forced to escape while the craft filled with water and sank, and the incident haunted his space career, Boomhower said.
Grissom and Roger Chaffee died in 1967 when a fire started inside their space capsule during a preflight test of Apollo 1 at Cape Kennedy.
Books will be available for $19.95 at the event. The book is published by the Indiana Historical Society Press as part of its Indiana Biography Series, which pairs writers with Indiana subjects of note.
Boomhower is managing editor of the IHS Press quarterly magazine Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. His previous books include biographies of Indiana historian Jacob Piatt Dunn Jr., nationally known columnist Juliet Strauss, suffragette and peace activist May Wright Sewall and World War II photographer John A. Bushemi.
CONTACT: Maggie Morris, Purdue News Service, (765) 494-2432, maggiemorris@purdue.edu
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