Francis French (born 1970) is a book and magazine author from Manchester, England, specialising in space flight history. He is a former director of events for Sally Ride Science, and a director at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.
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French's space history books have been reviewed by the Smithsonian's Air & Space Magazine, The San Diego Union-Tribune , Jeff Foust of The Space Review , Student Life newspaper, Popmatters, Quest: The History of Spaceflight, Blogcritics, Space Times, Oxford Journals , Air Power History, Technology and Culture , Journal of Cold War Studies , Michelle Evans of the National Space Society, readers of collectSPACE, and Hugo Award nominee Steven H Silver of Silver Reviews, hosted by SF Site. [1]
French's space history writing is noted for the amount of personal interviews with astronauts and cosmonauts, including Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper, Scott Carpenter, and Pavel Popovich. In addition, French is a contributor to the magazine of the British Interplanetary Society, and is a Fellow of the society. In 2005, astronaut Wally Schirra personally inducted French into the astronaut branch of the Ancient Order of Turtles. [2]
French has made appearances as a space expert on the Discovery Channel, History Channel, Science Channel, [3] and The Space Show, [4] as well as the BBC World Service, NPR's "All Things Considered," [5] ABC and other international broadcast shows. [6]
Both of French's 2007 books, Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961–1965 [7] and In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965–1969 [8] were named as finalists for the 2007 Eugene M. Emme Award given by the American Astronautical Society. [9] The latter was also named as 2009 Outstanding Academic Title by the American Library Association's Choice magazine. [10] In 2008, French received the AIAA "Outstanding Contribution to Aerospace Education" award, and the "Outstanding Community Support" award for San Diego from the National Space Society. [11] In 2011, French's co-authored book "Falling To Earth" made the top 12 of the LA Times Bestseller list. [12]
On 20 August 2010, French was inducted into the U.S. Space & Rocket Center's Space Camp Hall of Fame for his contributions to space history writing plus making science and technology accessible and understandable to family audiences. [13] French joined notable names in space history in the Hall of Fame such as rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun and NASA astronaut Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger. [14]
In 2024, French's An Unlikely Astronaut, co-authored with Susan Kilrain, was read in space aboard the International Space Station. [15]
In 2024 French was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Education in recognition of his distinguished contribution to STEM and to education as a whole from Brunel University, London. [16]
