Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

Purdue’s first astronaut featured in new biography

May 11th, 2016

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University Press will launch “Calculated Risk: The Supersonic Life and Times of Gus Grissom”  with several events this week (May 9) leading up to its June 15 publication date.

The book, written by George Leopold, chronicles the life of Grissom, Purdue’s first astronaut and one of the three astronauts killed in the January 27, 1967, launch pad fire.

“Calculated Risk” draws from interviews with fellow astronauts, NASA engineers, family members and friends of Grissom to place his career in the context of the Cold War and the history of human spaceflight.

Events taking place this week in Chicago, Lafayette and Indianapolis are detailed here. For more information on the book or to place a pre-order click here.

Writer: Megan Huckaby, 765-496-1325, mhuckaby@purdue.edu

Source: Bryan Shaffer, 765-494-8428, bshaffer@purdue.edu