Liberty Bell 7

Colin Burgess’s first book, “The Diggers of Colditz” was published simultaneously in the U.K. and Australia in 1985. His next few books were on the Australian prisoner-of–war experience and then he turned his efforts to writing about his principal interest: human space exploration. Burgess has written a number of books on the subject for the University of Nebraska Press and Springer-Praxis. The books he has written or co-authored for Springer-Praxis are “NASA’s Scientist-Astronauts,” “Animals in Space,” “The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team,” and “Selecting the Mercury Seven.” Recently finished the copyediting/typesetting process is his latest book for Springer-Praxis, “Moon Bound: Choosing and Preparing NASA’s Lunar Astronauts.” In the interim he has also worked as series editor and sometimes author for the Outward Odyssey set of 12 books on the social history of space exploration for the University of Nebraska Press.

• An astronaut named Gus.- The MR-3 mission and spacecraft.- Preparing for launch.- The flight of Liberty Bell 7.- An astronaut in peril.- One program ends, another begins.- From the depths of the ocean.

From the book reviews: "Burgess covers the Mercury spacecraft, astronaut Grissom's background, the details of the flight, and Grissom's future endeavors in the Gemini program, as well as his tragic death in the Apollo 1 fire. ... The book contains many interesting photographs and appendixes, including the pilot's report as well as a second-by-second time line of the flight. This well-written book would be a welcome addition to the collections of spaceflight enthusiasts. ... Summing Up: Recommended. Academic and general space history collections." (J. Z. Kiss, Choice, Vol. 52 (2), October, 2014)