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Roger D. Launius has been chair of the Division of Space History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, D.C., since 2002. Between 1990 and 2002 he served as chief historian of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Dr. Launius was born in Galesburg, Illinois, on May 15, 1954, and grew up in Greenville, South Carolina. He graduated from Graceland College, Lamoni, Iowa, with a major in history in 1976 and received the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history in 1978 and 1982 at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, with major fields in American frontier and military history.
After completing his Ph.D., Dr. Launius became a civilian staff historian with the United States Air Force, serving in a variety of historian positions with the Air Force. Between 1987 and 1990 he was Chief Historian for the Military Airlift Command, outside St. Louis, Missouri.
Dr. Launius has lectured widely on historical subjects to military, scholarly, technical, and general audiences. He has also served part‑time on the faculties of several colleges and universities. He has acted as a reader for publishers, as a member of the governing councils of several historical associations, and on the editorial boards of numerous journals. He is an active member of several professional associations, among them the American Astronautical Society, where he is a fellow and member of the board. He currently serves as president of the Society for History in the Federal Government
He has written or edited numerous books and articles. On aerospace history some of the more recent include: Space: A Journey to Our Future (Tehabi Books, 2004); Space Stations: Base Camps to the Stars (Smithsonian Books, 2003), which received the AIAA’s history manuscript prize; Reconsidering a Century of Flight (University of North Carolina Press, 2003); Flight: A Celebration of 100 Years in Art and Literature (Welcome Books, 2003); To Reach the High Frontier: A History of U.S. Launch Vehicles (University Press of Kentucky, 2002); Imagining Space: Achievements, Possibilities, Projections, 1950-2050 (Chronicle Books, 2001); Reconsidering Sputnik: Forty Years Since the Soviet Satellite (Harwood Academic, 2000); Innovation and the Development of Flight (Texas A&M University Press, 1999); NASA & the Exploration of Space (Stewart, Tabori, & Chang, 1998); Frontiers of Space Exploration (Greenwood Press, 1998, 2004 2 nd edition); Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership (University of Illinois Press, 1997); and NASA: A History of the U.S. Civil Space Program (Krieger Publishing Co., 1994, 2001 2 nd edition).
He is also involved in other historical studies. His book, Joseph Smith III: Pragmatic Prophet (University of Illinois Press, 1988), won the prestigious Evans Award for biography. He has also published Differing Visions: Dissenters in Mormon History (University of Illinois Press, 1994), Cultures in Conflict: A Documentary History of the Mormon War in Illinois (Utah State University Press, 1995), Kingdom on the Mississippi Revisited: Nauvoo in Mormon History (University of Illinois Press, 1996), and several other works. Alexander William Doniphan: Portrait of a Missouri Moderate (University of Missouri Press, 1997), discusses the role of the vital center in American politics during the Mexican-American War and sectional conflict. More recently he has been studying the relationship of baseball to American culture and has published, Seasons in the Sun: The Story of Big League Baseball in Missouri ( University of Missouri Press, 2002).
He is frequently consulted by the electronic and print media for his views on space issues. His research interests encompass all areas of U.S. and space history and policy history, especially cultural aspects of the subject and the role of executive decision-makers and their efforts to define space exploration.
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