Books for Adults

by Award-winning Author & former NASA Flight Controller Marianne Dyson

Order autographed copies from me or from Amazon via my Book Orders page.

Shuttle Mission Control

Click for high res cover image.

NASA's flight control teams work diligently during every flight to safeguard spacecraft and their crews, but few people appreciate the significance of their contributions to the American Space Program. Shuttle Mission Control: Flight Controller Stories and Photos, 1981-1992, showcases twenty first-person accounts, at least one for each console position in the Mission Operations Control Room (including one of mine as FAO and one of my husband's who was Guidance) of Space Shuttle controllers solving problems from dangerous pressure readings to capturing slippery satellites. Each chapter includes a list of the first people to work that console position, including the first women and minorities, and the appendix lists all the controllers honored by the Flight Directors to hang the mission plaque after each flight.

Visit my Shuttle page to read my Author's Note about why I wrote this book and view the Table of Contents with the names of the interview subjects.

Order an autographed copy via my Book Orders tab. All proceeds will be donated to capture and preserve more of the history of Mission Control, especially women in Mission Control.

A Passion for Space

Click for high res cover image.

My journey to NASA and a lifelong interest in space began with the inspiration of Apollo. My book opens with the story of where I was the day men first landed on the Moon. I went from a small town in Ohio to being one of the first female flight controllers at NASA's Johnson Space Center. At a reunion of the NASA Flight Activities Branch a few years ago, I discovered that not everyone has my packrat tendencies! Apparently, I am one of the only people who kept a journal, took old console logs and outdated documents home, and tucked snapshots and letters and newspaper clippings related to the early Shuttle Program into albums. At the urging of other former flight controllers, I turned this source material into A Passion for Space which was published by Springer in 2015.

Order an autographed copy via my Book Orders tab. Order from Springer, or from Amazon

Go to my A Passion for Space page to read an excerpt, reviews, and updates to the book and see photos of Mission Control during the first Space Shuttle flights.

Fly Me to the Moon and Other Stories

Fly Me to the Moon

Fly Me to the Moon is a collection of my previously published science fiction stories, appropriate for teen and adult readers. It opens with my first published story, Fireworks in Orbit about a space shuttle crew's struggle to survive an explosion. The Critical Factor features a clone facing the end of the universe. The Pest Man is flash fiction for Halloween. First published in Vision Science Fiction magazine, 1993. Virtually Correct focuses on racial profiling. First published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine, May 1995. The Shape of Things to Come shows how cuteness favors survival. Solution to the Orbital Debris Problem results from misinterpretations.

The cover story, Fly Me to the Moon, has a young man help an Alzheimer's patient save a woman stranded on the Moon. First published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine, July/August 2010, and reprinted in the anthology, Into the New Millennium: Trailblazing Tales From Analog Science Fiction and Fact, published by Dell Magazines, 2011, it is also reprinted in The Eagle Has Landed anthology, 2019.

Space Bugs uses microbes to get NASA funding. And finally, Europa's Survivors involves a terminal cancer patient who fills her final days with meaningful research. This story was a finalist in the AnLab Readers' Poll.

Order from Amazon in print or eBook format. Please see my Science Fiction page for links to anthologies that contain more of my fiction.

Space and Astronomy

Space and Astronomy is a historical reference book that reveals how astronomers unravel the mysteries of what makes the Sun shine, how stars collapse into black holes, and how the universe expands. It's the story of dreamers who designed rockets to bring back knowledge of other worlds and other galaxies. This title in the Twentieth-Century Science set published by Facts On File describes the progress of astronomy and the development of spaceflight from 1901 to 2000. Read press release (1.1 MB doc file).

Note, the eBook is only sold to libraries by calling 1-800-322-8755. Order print copies from Amazon.

Please see Space and Astronomy for more information about the writing and content of this high school and college-level history text.