Francis French (born 1970) is a book and magazine author from

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

, England, specialising in space flight history. He is a former director of events for

Sally Ride Science Sally Ride Science at UC San Diego is a nonprofit run by the University of California, San Diego. It was founded as a company in 2001 by Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, along with Tam O'Shaughnessy, Karen Flammer, Terry McEntee, and A ...

, and a director at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. French's space history books have been reviewed by the Smithsonian's '' Air & Space'' Magazine, ''

The San Diego Union-Tribune ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868. Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...

'',

Jeff Foust Jeff Foust is an aerospace analyst, journalist and publisher. A senior aerospace analyst with the Futron Corporation in Bethesda, Maryland, he is the editor and publisher of ''The Space Review'' and has written for ''Astronomy Now'' and '' The New ...

of '' The Space Review'', ''Student Life'' newspaper,

Popmatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television ...

, Quest: The History of Spaceflight,

Blogcritics Blogcritics is a blog network and online magazine of news and opinion. The site was founded in 2002 by Eric Olsen and Phillip Winn. Blogcritics features more than 100 original articles every week, and maintains an archive of all its published c ...

, ''Space Times'', ''

Oxford Journals Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

'', ''Air Power History'', ''

Technology and Culture ''Technology and Culture'' is a quarterly academic journal founded in 1959. It is an official publication of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), whose members routinely refer to it as "T&C." Besides scholarly articles and critical ...

'', '' Journal of Cold War Studies'', Michelle Evans of the National Space Society, readers of collectSPACE, and

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...

nominee

Steven H Silver Steven H Silver (born April 19, 1967) is an American science fiction fan and bibliographer, publisher, author, and editor. He has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer twelve times and Best Fanzine seven times without winni ...

of Silver Reviews, hosted by SF Site. French's space history writing is noted for the amount of personal interviews with

astronauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

and

cosmonauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally ...

, including Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper, Scott Carpenter, and

Pavel Popovich Pavel Romanovich Popovich (russian: Па́вел Рома́нович Попо́вич, uk, Павло Романович Попович, Pavlo Romanovych Popovych) (5 October 1930 – 29 September 2009) was a Soviet cosmonaut. Popovich was the ...

. In addition, French is a contributor to the magazine of the

British Interplanetary Society The British Interplanetary Society (BIS), founded in Liverpool in 1933 by Philip E. Cleator, is the oldest existing space advocacy organisation in the world. Its aim is exclusively to support and promote astronautics and space exploration. S ...

, 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. French has made appearances as a space expert on the Discovery Channel, History Channel,

Science Channel Science Channel (often simply branded as Science; abbreviated to SCI) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel features programming focusing on science related to wilderness survival, engineering, man ...

, and The Space Show, as well as the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the British Government through the Foreign Secretary's office. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception a ...

, NPR's "All Things Considered," ABC and other international broadcast shows. Both of French's 2007 books, '' Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961–1965'' and '' In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965–1969'' were named as finalists for the 2007 Eugene M. Emme Award given by the

American Astronautical Society Formed in 1954, the American Astronautical Society (AAS) is an independent scientific and technical group in the United States dedicated to the advancement of space science and space exploration. AAS supports NASA The National Aerona ...

. The latter was also named as 2009 Outstanding Academic Title by the American Library Association's Choice magazine. 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. In 2011, French's co-authored book "Falling To Earth" made the top 12 of the LA Times Bestseller list. 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. 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.

Bibliography

*'' Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961–1965'', with Colin Burgess, 2007 *'' In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965–1969'', with Colin Burgess, 2007 * ''Astronomica'', Ed. Fred Watson, 2007 (contributor) * ''The Great Explorers'', Ed. Robin Hanbury-Tenison, 2010 (Yuri Gagarin chapter) * ''Falling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut's Journey to the Moon'', with Al Worden, 2011 * ''Apollo Pilot'', with

Donn Eisele Donn Fulton Eisele (June 23, 1930 – December 1, 1987) (Colonel USAF) was a United States Air Force officer, test pilot, and later a NASA astronaut. He occupied the command module pilot seat during the flight of Apollo 7 in 1968. After re ...

, 2016 (editor) * ''Astronaut Al Travels to the Moon'', with Al Worden and Michelle Rouch, 2021 * ''The Light of Earth'', with Al Worden, 2021
'The Light of Earth'' official publisher site]

References

External links

Francis French web siteRare B&W video of Yuri Gagarin in Manchester digitally reconstructed in 2011 with a section of the original 16mm cine film kept safe by Francis French since 1987
{{DEFAULTSORT:French, Francis 1970 births Living people Alumni of Brunel University London English non-fiction writers Writers from Manchester People educated at North Cestrian Grammar School English male non-fiction writers