First Purdue prof picked to go into space, join Cradle of Astronauts

Plus, waiting on the Teising verdict. COVID cases push Lafayette ICUs past max. The monster next door gets 90 years. And, farewell, Chumley’s

Thanks today goes to the Long Center for the Performing Arts for its ongoing support of the Based in Lafayette reporting project. The Long Center just announced its “100 Years of Film” series, to mark the theater’s anniversary, first opening as the Mars Theatre in 1921. For more scroll to the bottom of today’s edition.

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COMING SOON: A PURDUE PROF IN SPACE

Steven Collicott, a Purdue aerospace engineering professor, is scheduled to be the first faculty member to join the Cradle of Astronauts. (Photo: Purdue)

Maybe it was fitting that Steven Collicott was in Florida, helping set up simulated zero-gravity experiments on an aircraft known as the “Vomit Comet,” when he got word that he was in line to add his name to Purdue’s “Cradle of Astronauts.”

Collicott, an aerospace engineering professor for the past three decades at Purdue, was selected  by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program to accompany an experiment into suborbital space aboard an upcoming Virgin Galactic flight.