Sunday, October 7th, 2012 The Marin Center Exhibit Hall
San Rafael, California
Francis French
Neil Armstrong and the Race to the Moon
About
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. He is the former Director of Events with Sally Ride Science, working for America’s first woman in space, and the current Director of Education at 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. His most recent book, 2011’s “Falling to Earth,” is co-authored with Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden, and made the top 12 of the LA Times Bestseller list.
At The Fair
On the Exhibit Hall Stage will be acclaimed author and US Space & Rocket Center's Hall of Fame inductee, Francis French, speaking on Neil Armstrong and the Race to the Moon.
In the 1960s, two superpowers were engaged in a titanic battle to land the first human on the moon. Why did America get there first? And why was Neil Armstrong chosen as the person to make that first step? In this talk, Francis French will take you through the colorful personalities and risky decisions that led up to the historic moment of the first moon landing.