APOLLO RISING BY ALAN SMALE
Articles By Alan Smale on Science Behind the Fiction
February 7, 2024
Alan, talking about hit space alternate-history TV show "For All Mankind" fellow authors Randee Dawn, J.L. Gribble, and Russ Colchamiro on Russ's Rockin' Rollercoaster, Ep.#107
November 5 2022
Writes of the Future Podcast #198: “From science to science fiction: Jeffrey A. Carver, Edward M. Lerner, Alan Smale, Edward Willett discuss their journey[s] from aspiring writers to award- winning and bestselling authors”
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September 21, 2022
Chris Rose runs a great speculative fiction reading series in Baltimore called Charm City Spec. Alan had the honor of reading there, along with Randee Dawn, Amy L. Bernstein, and Searby Gray. A video of his reading (courtesy of Scott Edelman) can be found at
Alan Smale Non-fiction & Historical Articles
THE CHICXULUB IMPACT
THE MONGOL HORDE
THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM
ROME FALLS
X-RAY LASERS
EARTHRISE
Alan's Experience Working at NASA
In his professional life, Alan works at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland, serving as Director of the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Rsearch Center (HEASARC). Prior to this, he served for five years and five months at NASA Headquarters in downtown Washington DC, as Program Executive for Mission Operations and Data Analysis, with particular responsibility for a wide range of exciting missions such as Chandra, Spitzer, GP-B, Suzaku, RXTE, Swift, GALEX, WMAP, INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton.
From 1988-2003 Alan was a Senior Research Scientist for USRA at the Goddard Space Flight Center, specializing in the physics of low-mass X-ray binaries, the best, brightest and most variable X-ray sources in our Galaxy. LMXBs are close binaries containing either a neutron star or a black hole, sucking in material from a more typical star in orbit around it. Alan led the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) Guest Observer Facility (GOF), which provides community access to the RXTE scientific satellite, launched in 1995. He was also heavily involved in the detailed design of a similar facility for the gamma ray burst chasing satellite, Swift, launched in November 2004.
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