Glen E. Swanson served as the Chief Historian of NASA's Johnson Space Center, where he led their oral history program and served as editor of the anthology "Before This Decade Is Out..." Personal Reflections on the Apollo Program (1999) which won the Society for History in the Federal Government's George Pendleton Prize. He also co-authored Fifty-five Trips Around the Sun: The History of Smiths Industries Information Management Systems (1999). In 1992, Swanson founded Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly, the world’s only peer-reviewed publication on the history of spaceflight and recipient of the American Astronomical Society's Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History (2015). His writings have appeared in the Smithsonian’s Air & Space, Michigan History, and The Space Review. Swanson co-founded the annual “Roger That!” space conference, held since 2017 in Grand Rapids to honour the late astronaut Roger B. Chaffee who perished along with his crewmates in the Apollo 1 fire. His latest book is Inspired Enterprise: How NASA, the Smithsonian and the Aerospace Community Helped Launch Star Trek (Schiffer Books, 2025). Glen is a Fellow of the Explorers Club and lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his wife Deana their son Luke.

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