After 30 years and one of the most successful runs in the history of manned space travel, the space shuttle era was coming to a close in 2011. To commemorate the historic last flights, Kennedy Space Center created the Summer Of The Shuttle, a uniquely special celebration of what is arguably the most memorable chapter in space exploration since Apollo. I was asked to help develop a commemorative book that captured the emotional nature of the shuttle's final flights and their place in history. For me, no one has had a more poetic or grander vision of space travel than science fiction author, Ray Bradbury. One of Bradbury's stories, "Rocket Summer", seemed like a particularly perfect fit for the Kennedy project.