Photo historian and author J. L. Pickering has conducted photo research into the US manned space program for nearly fifty years—acquiring, organizing, and restoring more than 250,000 prints, slides, transparencies, and digital files, the largest such private archive. His sources include government archives, NASA retirees, news photographers, private collectors, and auction houses. One of the world’s leading manned space photography experts, he is regularly contacted by authors, retired astronauts, and even NASA for photo assistance.
Journalist John Bisney is a retired national news correspondent who covered the US space program for more than thirty years for CNN Radio, RKO Radio, the Discovery Science Channel, and SiriusXM. He covered more than sixty-five space shuttle launches, including the Challenger and Columbia disasters. With Pickering, he has coauthored five space photography history books.
Eugene Kranz was NASA’s second chief flight director, serving during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, including the first lunar landing mission, Apollo 11. He also directed the successful efforts by Mission Control to save the crew of Apollo 13. Kranz is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and his role as a flight controller during Mercury is illustrated in this book.
