American science journalist William Roy Shelton served as Miami bureau chief for Time Inc. and as space-affairs correspondent for both Time and Life. A first-hand witness of the Space Age, he covered forty-eight major launches from Cape Canaveral. A World War II veteran, he turned to popular writing and produced several books on the American and Soviet space programmes, among them Countdown: The Story of Cape Canaveral (1960), American Space Exploration: The First Decade and Soviet Space Exploration: The First Decade (1968). He also wrote the young-adult novel Stowaway to the Moon (1973), adapted for the screen in 1975. He taught English at Rollins College and lived near the Kennedy Space Center.