Leonard David

Leonard David is a space journalist, reporting on space activities for over 50 years.

Leonard David is a space journalist, reporting on space activities for over 50 years.

Mr. David is author of Mars – Our Future on the Red Planet published by National Geographic in October 2016. The book is the companion volume to Mars – a National Geographic Channel television series from executive producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard.

Leonard is co-author with Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin of Mission to Mars – My Vision for Space Exploration released in May 2013 and published by the National Geographic Society. A soft cover edition of the book with a new essay was released in May 2015.

Also issued in May 2015 — Space Careers — was co-authored by Leonard and entrepreneur Scott Sacknoff. This book is designed for high school, college, graduate students – and job seekers of all ages. It is an in-depth source for understanding and finding a career in the space and satellite industry.

Leonard is the first recipient of the American Astronautical Society’s (AAS) “Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History” in the category of journalism, to be presented in October 2015 in connection with the 8th AAS Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium held in Huntsville, Alabama.

Mr. David is the 2010 winner of the prestigious National Space Club Press Award, presented this honor during the Club’s annual Robert H. Goddard Memorial Dinner in April 2011 that was held in Washington, D.C.

Currently, Leonard is SPACE.com’s Space Insider Columnist, as well as a correspondent for SpaceNews magazine and a contributing writer for several publications, specifically Scientific American, and other venues, such as Aerospace America, the membership publication of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Mr. David has created his own website dedicated to reporting on a variety of space topics and can be found at:

http://www.leonarddavid.com/

Leonard David has been reporting on space exploration for over five decades. Throughout those years, his writings have appeared in numerous websites, newspapers, magazines and books, such as the Financial Times, Foreign Policy, Private Air, Sky and Telescope, Astronomy, SPACE.com and SpaceNews newspaper, as well as Aerospace America and in supplemental writing for Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine. Mr. David has been a consultant to NASA, other government agencies and the aerospace industry.

In the mid-1980’s he served as Director of Research for the National Commission on Space, a U.S. Congress/White House study that appraised the next 50 to 100 years of space exploration.

Leonard is co-author of Extreme Flight: Rocket Science, Sundance/Newbridge Educational Publishing issued in 2006. As a Contributing Essayist, Mr. David’s writings can be found in the National Geographic`s Encyclopedia of Space, published in 2004.

Leonard is also a co-author of the book Chaos to Cosmos – A Space Odyssey, published by the Denver Museum of Nature & Space in 2003. In past years, Mr. David has served as editor-in-chief of the National Space Society`s Ad Astra and Space World magazines, as well as the newsstand publication, Final Frontier.

For NASA, Leonard completed the task of writing a majority of the highly regarded Spinoff 1997, Spinoff 1998, and Spinoff 1999 publications. In the past, Leonard has assisted the audio/visual branch by interviewing and writing scripts for the monthly NASA radio program, “The Space Story”. Mr. David has worked with the NASA exhibits branch on public outreach displays, writing text and carrying out photo research on both the commercial uses of space and infrared technologies for astronomy, Earth remote sensing and spinoff applications.

Leonard served as research and technical advisor for the PBS-televised, Living and Working in Space – The Countdown Has Begun, an hour-long science fact/fiction look at careers in space that was premiered on PBS on March 31, 1993.

Leonard was contracted by the producers of the video, the Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education (FASE), to work on the project through 1992 into early 1993. Mr. David served as a technical consultant to the widely acclaimed Bouncing to Mars: The Inside Story of the Mars Exploration Rover Missions, produced by Passport to Knowledge made possible, in part, by the National Science Foundation and was released in summer 2003.

Mr. David was also honored to receive the internationally recognized Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) Award for Best Space Submission at the Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards in England in 2006 and in Paris in 2003.

In 2006, Leonard received the Orbit award for Space Media from the Space Tourism Society honoring his writings over the decades on the burgeoning space tourism industry. Later that year, he won the 2nd Annual Space Journalism award for best article on human spacefaring for January-September 2005 for his article, “Space Tourism: Keeping the Customer Satisfied”.

In 2001, Mr. David won the National Space Society’s Space Pioneer Award for Media.