Francis French is originally from Manchester, England, although he now lives and works in Southern California. He has been working for over a decade in the field of science education, particularly in making science and technology accessible and understandable to family audiences in informal learning settings such as museums. This has included positions at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, the San Bernardino County Museum, and the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in San Diego, California, where he also served as the Spaceflight and Astronomy Spokesperson, briefing media on space-related stories. His work has included regular collaborations with nasa, retired astronauts, notable astronomers and astronomical observatories around the world, and a banner he designed was flown on the space shuttle Columbia’s last successful mission. Formerly the Director of Events with Sally Ride Science, working for America’s first woman in space, he is now the Director of Education for the San Diego Air & Space Museum. He has been a regular contributor of articles to aerospace magazines since 1996, primarily in the area of manned spaceflight history, and is the co-author of both Into That Silent Sea and In The Shadow of the Moon.