John Shirley Hurst served as Director of Information of the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) in the United States during the mid-1950s. In this capacity, he was responsible for government communications surrounding the American space program and had privileged access to the actors of Project Vanguard, the satellite initiative jointly run by the National Science Foundation and the Naval Research Laboratory under the International Geophysical Year framework (1957–1958). His book Les satellites artificiels américains (French title; original English title unidentified), published in French translation in 1957, stands as one of the rare first-hand American accounts of the Vanguard program written before the launch of Sputnik. His dates of birth and death are not documented in accessible sources.