Space Ace: A Combat Pilot's Journey from Vietnam to Space

Following his Air Force career in fighter aircraft and the building of national brands for companies like Rockwell Avionics, Disney, and Miller Brewing, Dr. Anthony Paustian created a technology-focused college campus that was named one of the nation's most innovative organizations. The campus has received national media attention for its groundbreaking initiatives, ranging from advances in educational delivery systems to its inspiring Celebrate Innovation Live! (ciLive!) event. Dr. Paustian has authored four books including A Quarter Million Steps, which won seven international and national literary awards for best book in the areas of leadership, motivation, and success. He's the managing partner of Bookpress Publishing and Media, a regular contributor for Ad Astra (the magazine of the National Space Society), and serves as the society's Vice President of Marketing. He recently served as the chair of the International Space Development Conference held in Los Angeles. Dr. Paustian holds graduate degrees in business administration and design management, as well as a doctorate degree in educational psychology.

Captain Robert Hoot Gibson entered the United States Navy after college and served as a fighter pilot in the F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcat aircraft, flying combat missions in Southeast Asia and making more than 300 carrier landings aboard the aircraft carriers USS Coral Sea and USS Enterprise. After attending the Navy Fighter Weapons School, better known as TOPGUN, and the Navy Test Pilot School, he served as a flight test pilot prior to being selected to become an Astronaut in 1978 in the first Space Shuttle Astronaut selection. In eighteen years as an Astronaut, he flew five space flights, four of them as Mission Commander, aboard the space shuttles Challenger, Columbia, Atlantis, and Endeavour. His final space flight was the first mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir in 1995. In his career with NASA, he held the positions of Deputy Chief of NASA Aircraft Operations, Deputy Director of Flight Crew Operations, and Chief Astronaut.