David Baker (born 1944) is a prolific British space author and self-described space scientist. His description
of his career is that he first visited the US in 1962 and returned to work for
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
on the
Gemini
Gemini may refer to:
Space
* Gemini (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac
** Gemini in Chinese astronomy
* Project Gemini, the second U.S. crewed spaceflight program
* Gemini Observatory, consisting of telescopes in the Norther ...
,
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...
and
Space Shuttle program
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. I ...
s between 1965 and 1984 as a Mission Planning and Analysis Department. He reports that he was present at NASA during
Apollo 13 in 1970.
He returned to the UK in 1984 and set up an independent consultancy helping countries around the world including India to develop and integrate commercial space technologies for their national space programmes.
He now works as a journalist, writer and an author. He has published thousands of articles, more than 100 books and contributed to many radio and TV documentaries about space missions in the US and Europe. In the past, he has edited the Aerospace Review, Jane's Aircraft Upgrades and Jane's Space Directory. He is a fellow of the
British Interplanetary Society
The British Interplanetary Society (BIS), founded in Liverpool in 1933 by Philip E. Cleator, is the oldest existing space advocacy organisation in the world. Its aim is exclusively to support and promote astronautics and space exploration.
Str ...
(BIS) and from 2011 until his resignation in 2021 he was the editor of the BIS's monthly journal,
''Spaceflight''.
Allegations of fraud
On 18 March 2021, David Whitehouse, a science journalist and former BBC News science editor, raised allegations on Twitter that Baker's reported professional credentials and Apollo career history were fraudulent. The BIS issued a statement on 21 March that it was aware of these allegations, and that the Society would "re-consider any impact of these allegations on the Society". On 25 March 2021, Baker resigned as editor of ''Spaceflight''.
Bibliography
The Race for Space– The Story of the space race in six volumes written with co-author Anatoly Zak (2018)
The Apollo Missions The Incredible Story of the Race to the Moon (from 29 June 2019)
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, David
1944 births
Living people
British male journalists
British space scientists