Robert Pearlman

About me: As one of the first independent developers to recognize the Internet as an effective means of popularizing space exploration, Robert Pearlman has driven the content and creation of some of the most popular and influential sites devoted to the subject. His Ask An Astronaut website preceded even NASA's efforts to connect the public with the men and women who have flown in space and was honored as Kid Site of Year in 1996. As Online Program Director, Pearlman led the redesign and expansion of the National Space Society's website, including authoring the official viewer's guide to Tom Hanks' HBO miniseries From The Earth To The Moon. In 1997, he was recruited by Apollo moonwalker Buzz Aldrin to develop the website accompanying Aldrin's first novel. And in 1999, Pearlman co-founded the astronaut-endorsed Starport.com, which was later acquired by Lou Dobbs' SPACE.com (Pearlman was then hired by SPACE.com as a producer and tasked with managing their community projects).

Between 1998 and 2003, Pearlman was the on-air online host for the National Space Day webcast filmed annually from the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.

In 1996, Pearlman was hired by Space Adventures, Ltd., the first company to launch privately-financed tourists to the International Space Station, as their first Marketing and Public Relations Director, a position held until 2003.

Today, Pearlman is sought as a space history expert and, as described by MSNBC, "a respected appraiser of the value of spaceflight memorabilia."

Pearlman is a member of the U.S. Space Walk of Fame Foundation Board of Directors, serves on the Advisory Committee of the Ansari X PRIZE Foundation and on the nominating induction committee for the Astronaut Hall of Fame in Florida. He is a director emeritus of the National Space Society and former national chair of the Students for the Exploration and Development and Space (SEDS).

In 2001, his work on collectSPACE earned Pearlman the Collector of the Year Award from the Universal Autograph Collectors Club (UACC). In 2009, Pearlman was inducted into the Space Camp Hall of Fame.