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Andrew Chaikin

Andrew Chaikin has authored books and articles about space exploration and astronomy for more than two decades. He is also active as a lecturer at museums, schools and corporate events, and in radio and television appearances.

Chaikin is best known as the author of A Man on the Moon: The Triumphant Story of the Apollo Space Program, first published in 1994. This acclaimed work was the main basis for Tom Hanks' HBO miniseries, From the Earth to the Moon, which won the Emmy for best miniseries in 1998. Chaikin spent eight years writing and researching A Man on the Moon, including hundreds of hours of personal interviews with each of the 23 surviving lunar astronauts. Apollo moonwalker Gene Cernan said of the book, "I've been there. Chaikin took me back."

Chaikin co-edited The New Solar System, a compendium of writings by planetary scientists, now in its fourth edition. He is also the author of Air and Space: The National Air and Space Museum Story of Flight, published in 1997 by Bulfinch Press. He collaborated with moonwalker-turned-artist Alan Bean to write Apollo: An Eyewitness Account, published in 1998 by the Greenwich Workshop Press. Chaikin co-authored the text for the highly successful collection of Apollo photography, Full Moon, which was published by Knopf in 1999. His most recent book, Space: A History of Space Exploration in Photographs, was published in 2002 by Carlton.

From 1999 to 2001 Chaikin served as Executive Editor for Space and Science at SPACE.com, the definitive website for all things space. He was also the editor of SPACE.com's print magazine, Space Illustrated.

Chaikin is a commentator for National Public Radio's Morning Edition, and is a frequent guest on CNN. He has appeared on Good Morning America, Nightline, Charlie Rose, and the NPR programs Fresh Air and Talk of the Nation.

A former editor of Sky & Telescope magazine, Chaikin has also been a contributing editor of Popular Science and has written for Newsweek, Air&Space/Smithsonian, World Book Encyclopedia, Scientific American, and other publications.

A graduate of Brown University, Chaikin served on the Viking missions to Mars at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and was a researcher at the Smithsonian's Center for Earth and Planetary Studies before becoming a science journalist in 1980.

When he is not writing, Chaikin pursues his passion for songwriting and recording.

Marianne Dyson

Marianne Dyson was one of the first ten women to work in NASA's Mission Control as a Flight Controller. She served as a Flight Activities Officer during the early Space Shuttle program. She left NASA to raise her children and continued working part-time as an aerospace consultant. Marianne began sharing her passion for space through writing nonfiction, poetry, and science fiction and continues to be a prominent role model for young girls.

Marianne attended Ohio University studying Mathematics and transferred to University of North Carolina at Greensboro graduating cum laude in physics. She spent the summer following graduation serving as a congressional intern in Washington, DC and learning the importance of participation in democracy. Soon after, she arrived in Texas to attend graduate school at Rice University in Space Physics and Astronomy and was fortunate enough to hire on at NASA as a flight controller.

Marianne Dyson knows firsthand that space motivates kids to read, experiment, and write about what they've learned and imagined. A strong believer in hands-on learning, Marianne shares insiders' knowledge and her passion for space with audiences through interactive science presentations and demonstrations. She is the winner of a Golden Kite for Space Station Science (Scholastic, 1999; Windward, 2004), and the prestigious American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award for Home on the Moon (National Geographic, 2003).

Marianne is also the author of Homework Help on the Internet (Scholastic, 2000), The Space Explorer's Guide to Stars & Galaxies (Book 8 of Scholastic's Space University series), and short stories in Girls to the Rescue Book 7 (Meadowbrook, 2000) and Eat My Martian Dust (Baker, 2005), an anthology for Christian kids. She has appeared on C-SPAN2/BookTV, Reading is Fundamental, and been featured in numerous news articles.

She is now a full-time writer, a frequent contributor to Odyssey, program book coordinator for the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement, a technical editor for several publishers, on the board of the National Space Society, and a black belt in the Korean martial art of Kuk Sool.

Sy Liebergot

Sy began his engineering career with North American Aviation, in Downey, CA, before graduating from California State University-Los Angeles with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1963. His space career began at North American at the very inception of the Apollo lunar program when he joined a newly formed Flight Operations Group. In 1964, he transferred to Houston, Texas as a member of the Flight Operations Group in support of NASA Mission Operations at the Manned Spacecraft Center, which had just opened.

Sy switched over to NASA after about a year to qualify for a "front room" flight controller position in the mission control center in order to "get in on the action." He became a veteran flight controller of many flights serving as Operations and Procedures Officer on AS-202, as Assistant Flight Director On AS-501 (the first Saturn V launch), and as EECOM (Electrical, Environmental, Consumables) Flight Controller on Apollo missions 8 - 15.

Sy was the Lead EECOM Flight Controller throughout all Apollo manned missions and an EGIL (Skylab EECOM) for all of the Skylab program missions. On the international scene, Sy was the Lead EECOM for the American-Russian Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission. He contributed his experience to early shuttle missions and to the space station design.

As EECOM in Mission Control on Apollo 13, Sy was at the focal point of the crisis when the spacecraft oxygen tank exploded. He has advised and contributed to several books concerning Apollo 13 including the movie, Apollo 13; and was the technical adviser for an archival multi-media CD-ROM entitled Apollo 13, A Race Against Time, which is devoted to the Apollo 13 mission. He has appeared in the PBS NOVA series, the History Channel Modern Marvels, and the acclaimed Public Broadcast System documentary Apollo 13, To The Edge and Back. He served as the on-camera host for a space documentary entitled In the Shadow of the Moon, produced by the CBS affiliate in Austin, Texas. He has published his autobiography entitled Apollo EECOM: Journey Of A Lifetime.

As part of the Apollo 13 Operations Team, Sy was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He also received the NASA Commendation Award for his leadership role in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project international space mission. He has also been honored as Distinguished Alumnus of his alma mater’s School of Engineering and Technology. The Space Frontier Foundation presented the Hero of the Moon award to him at the 2005 Return To The Moon Conference. Recently, Sy was a co-recipient of the coveted Silver Telly award for the 2005 Museum of Flight Gala production.

Sy, as a Senior Project Engineer, directed the design and fabrication of the astronaut neutral buoyancy trainers for the International Space Station (ISS). He remains an active booster and international public speaker of NASA's space accomplishments and the importance of a good education. He lives in Pearland, Texas with his wife, Craig.

Charles Murray

Charles Murray is the coauthor (with Catherine Bly Cox) of Apollo, originally published in 1989 and recently released in a new softcover edition. This history of the Apollo program was acclaimed by reviews in The Washington Post ("Rich, densely packed, and beautifully told"), The New York Times ("A marvelous, deftly written book"), and The San Francisco Chronicle ("So brilliantly told one can almost smell the perspiration in Houston's Mission Control"). But the authors' favorite reviews came from the veterans of the NASA Centers and Apollo contractors who say that this is the one book that conveys what being part of Apollo was really like. Apollo flight director Gene Kranz, the hero of the movie Apollo 13, says flatly that "Apollo is the finest book ever written about manned spaceflight." A gifted speaker, Murray gave the opening speech at the NASA symposium celebrating the 40th anniversary of manned spaceflight in May 2001.

Mr. Murray is the author of other well-known books, including Losing Ground and The Bell Curve. He has been the subject of cover articles in Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, and The Los Angeles Times Magazine, and featured in segments of 60 Minutes, 20/20 and Prime Time Live. Murray has been a guest on Meet the Press, Nightline, Crossfire, Today, and Good Morning America, and all of the major networks' evening newscasts. Sponsors of Murray's speeches include leading corporations, foundations, and universities in the United States and abroad. Of all the topics on which he speaks, the story of Apollo continues to be the one he enjoys most.

John Spencer

John Spencer is a professional space architect who has built a career creating, designing, and developing his own space tourism, Mars, and future-themed immersive simulation and attraction projects, while serving as a conceptual designer for some of the world's largest corporations. His achievements include the first interior designs of the Spacehab module flown to orbit more than a dozen times, the designed interiors of the Aquarius Underwater Laboratory still in operation for the (NOAA) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and completed interior design studies for the (ISS) International Space Station for the Human Factors Division of NASA Ames Research Center. He also worked with a team to provide all the design work for a successful build of an Antarctic Science Base and concept for a Mobile Field Laboratory built several years later. As a real estate developer and site master planner, he has done everything from launch complex conceptual layouts to opening theme parks. John is a remarkably talented, experienced, and successful individual. He is known as a pioneer in the field of outer space architecture. He has a professional and masters degree in architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture.

John was awarded the Space Humanitarian Award by the United Societies in Space and Apollo 11 astronaut Dr. Buzz Aldrin in 2000 and in 1995 was awarded the Space Act Award and the Certificate of Recognition from NASA for innovative architectural design on the International Space Station, now in Earth's orbit. He is the author with Karen Rugg of the book Space Tourism - Do You Want To Go published by Apogee Books (September 2004). Since 1997, he has been designing the world's first orbital super yacht called Destiny, premiered in this book.

John has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, Space News, Popular Science, Men's Journal, Los Angeles Times, and more than two dozen other magazines and newspaper articles on Space Tourism. He has appeared on the The Today Show, CNN, ABC, CBS News, and on more than a two dozen other television programs including the Discovery Channel, PBS, Japanese NHK, and the Learning Channel.

He is the founder, president, and chief designer of Red Planet Ventures, Inc. A research, design, and licensing company creating a wide range of Mars themed simulation and media ventures ranging from a Mars Resort and Spa to a Mars Expedition Base to be built in the Mojave Desert opening in mid 2007, to a Mars Camp, and the Mars Hall of Fame. He is also the Founder and president of the nonprofit Space Tourism Society.