John Baumbusch grew up in the suburbs of New York City and became interested in the space program, like many who grew up in the 1960’s. He built plastic models of spacecraft and watched all the launches on TV. During the summer of 1969, he was asked to display his spacecraft models at his village library. In July 1971, at age 17, he and his friend drove from New York to Florida to watch the launch of Apollo 15 from the press site -- the memory of a lifetime. He went to college at Brown University and earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering. During the summer of his junior year, he built jet engines for an aircraft company in Connecticut. Upon graduation, he went to work for an American multinational conglomerate. He subsequently earned his MBA at Columbia University and spent the rest of his career in marketing and sales for packaged goods food manufacturer companies. Throughout his life, he has continued to read numerous books about the space program and build/collect models, magazines, and newspapers. In retirement, he has finally found the time to develop and teach a course about the space race. His eight-week course traces the history of rocketry and space travel from dreams to reality, from Galileo to Goddard to von Braun to the Moon. Each week he brings memorabilia and models to illustrate the lecture. Because of his technical training, he can explain scientific subjects in an approachable way. He has taught this course several times to seniors’ organizations in the area. He also has more time to drive to Florida to watch launches. He has viewed dozens of launches over the years and is more excited than ever about the future of space exploration. He enjoys sharing his enthusiasm with others.