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Board of Directors

John M. Logsdon

John M. Logsdon is a long-time supporter of The Planetary Society, who first served as chair of the Advisory Council and is now a member of the Board of Directors.   In his role as Director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University (GWU)’s Elliott School of International Affairs, Logsdon is often interviewed by the media regarding space policy issues. 

Logsdon is also professor of political science and international affairs at GWU, where he has been a faculty member since 1970. His research interests focus on the policy and historical aspects of U.S. and international space activities.

Testifying before Congress on several occasions, Logsdon recently served as a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. He is a former member of the NASA Advisory Council and a current member of the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee of the Department of Transportation.

Logsdon is the author of The Decision to Go to the Moon: Project Apollo and the National Interest and is general editor of the eight-volume series Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program. He has written numerous articles and reports on space policy and history and has recently completed the basic article on “space exploration” for the new edition of Encyclopedia Britannica.

He is a recipient of the Distinguished Public Service Medals from NASA.  Logsdon is also a faculty member of the International Space University and former member of its Board of Trustees.  He is former Chairman of the Committee on Science and Public Policy of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Education Committee of the International Astronautical Federation.  He was the first holder of the Chair in Space History of the National Air and Space Museum.