Luke Wesley Price is a British graphic designer of over 20 years' experience in branding, advertising and imagery, who founded his own design agency in 2008. He has had a lifelong interest in America's space history, from Project Mercury through to Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and beyond. As a child growing up in the 1980s, the space shuttle program was always the highlight and central thread of this passion, and in his research for this book he fulfilled the ambition of corresponding regularly with the shuttle pilots who had been his heroes. When not working in the world of design, Luke travels the world as a bass guitarist in bands including his own musical project RenattaJane. Luke lives in Essex.

Christopher J. Ferguson is a former NASA astronaut who was commander of the Space Shuttle Atlantis for flight STS-135, the final mission of the Space Shuttle program. Previously, on his first space mission (STS-115) in September 2006, he had been the pilot of Atlantis, and he commanded STS-126 aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2008. He retired from NASA in 2011 and is now director of Crew and Mission Operations for Boeing's Commercial Crew Program.