Robert Godwin (born 1958 in England) is a British author who has written about rock music andspaceflight. Early in his career he was a rock musicimpresario who managed a venue inBurlington, Ontario, and foundedGriffin Music.
After attendingEllesmere College in Shropshire, where he studied Mathematics and Physics, he emigrated to Canada.[1] Olympic rowerJack Godwin and New Zealand military aviatorJames Gowing Godwin were cousins. Lt. Sidney Godwin, who rode withMarshall's Horse, was his great-grandfather.
In 1981, he managed the Orient Express night club, a venue inBurlington, Ontario, where many world class rock acts performed includingRick Derringer,Steppenwolf,Joe Perry andMountain. In 1983 Godwin turned to music management and assisted in the recording and production of albums byMichael White & The White. In 1987 he started the process to establish his own record labelGriffin Music and his own book publishing company,Collector's Guide Publishing. In 1990 the first album by Michael White was released onGriffin Music. Over the next few years Griffin would release many classic rock acts' back-catalogs through Griffin, notably, the BBC in Concert series,Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe,David Bowie,Motörhead,Thin Lizzy,Mike Oldfield,Olivia Newton-John,Hawkwind, andNazareth.[2][3]
In 1984, Godwin wroteThe Illustrated Led Zeppelin Collection a book forLed Zeppelin collectors. Books he authored between 1987 and 2007 includeThe Illustrated Collector's Guide to Led Zeppelin, The Illustrated Collector's Guide toHawkwind, The Illustrated Collector's Guide toKate Bush,Apollo 11 The First Men on the Moon, Project Apollo The Test Program, Project Apollo Exploring the Moon, Mars, The Lunar Exploration Scrapbook, Russian Spacecraft,Space Shuttle Fact Archive and The Making ofLed Zeppelin IV. In 2005 Godwin co-authoredSaturn with Alan Lawrie. The book won theSir Arthur Clarke Award for Best Presentation Written in 2006.[4] In 2013 he co-authored a biography ofArthur C. Clarke with Fred Clarke, brother of Arthur.[5]
In 2014 he co-authored2001 The Heritage and Legacy of the Space Odyssey withFrederick I. Ordway III,[6] who was technical adviser toStanley Kubrick for the film2001 A Space Odyssey. Godwin also contributed feature articles to such publications asGoldmine (magazine)[7] andBoeing Employee Times[8][9]
In October 2015, Godwin wrote and publishedThe First Scientific Concept of Rockets for Space Travel,[10] an essay in which he asserted that a Scottish Presbyterian Minister and Canadian University Principal namedWilliam Leitch was the first scientist to determine, for the correct reasons, that rockets were the best method for powering space flight. Godwin's essay was publicly endorsed byFrank H. Winter, retired Curator of Rocketry at theSmithsonian Air and Space Museum, and by David Baker, editor of theBritish Interplanetary Society's magazine,Spaceflight.[11][12] Leitch's proposal for rockets appeared in September 1861 in the magazineGood Words, effectively pre-dating the modern proponents of rocketry, such asRobert Hutchings Goddard andKonstantin Tsiolkovsky by more than three decades. In late 2016 Godwin released his findings as a book entitledWilliam Leitch - Presbyterian Scientist & The Concept of Rocket Space Flight 1854-1864. Godwin co-authoredOutpost in Orbit - An Oral and Pictorial History of the International Space Station with David Shayler in 2018. The book was written in cooperation with the ISS office at theJohnson Space Center under a NASA Space Agreement.[13] Godwin's bookManned Lunar Landing & Return, released in March 2019, told the story of Project MALLAR, the 1959 plan for a crewed lunar landing created byConrad Lau, head of Advanced Projects at the Chance Vought Aircraft Company's Astronautics Division. Lau's report proposed a three module spacecraft system which would take two people to the lunar surface and use a technique known aslunar orbit rendezvous to return them to Earth. Godwin showed thatAbe Silverstein, a senior NASA manager was given the report on 12 January 1960, and two weeks later instructed NASA's Advance Vehicle team to adopt this design for the Apollo spacecraft.[14]
Between 1987 and 1998Collector's Guide Publishing released books on many different rock artists includingPink Floyd,Led Zeppelin,The Beatles,Elvis Presley,Kate Bush,Alice Cooper,Wishbone Ash andKiss.
In 1998, at the invitation of astronautBuzz Aldrin, Godwin would begin his imprintApogee Books.[15]
Between 1998 and 2018Apogee Books published over 150 book titles about space flight with contributions fromBuzz Aldrin,Sir Arthur C. Clarke,Tom Hanks,Ron Howard,David R. Scott,Harrison Schmitt andWernher von Braun.[16][17][18][19]
Godwin has edited dozens of books including theNASA Mission Reports series (41 titles as of 2024),[20]Dyna-Soar Hypersonic Strategic Weapons System,[21] Rocket & Space CorporationEnergia, X-15,[22]The Conquest of Space, Columbia Accident Investigation Report[23] as well as a series of vintage science fiction books in 2006 under theApogee Science Fiction imprint. Titles with forewords by Godwin and editorial content includeGarrett P. Serviss'Edison's Conquest of Mars andA Columbus of Space,Hugo Gernsback'sBaron Münchhausen's New Scientific Adventures,Otto Willi Gail'sBy Rocket to the Moon, andGeorge Griffith'sThe World Peril of 1910,A Honeymoon in Space andAround the World in 65 Days. In his 2006 reprint ofThe World Peril of 1910, Godwin was the first to draw attention to Griffith's invention of the countdown for a space launch. The series also included the first uncut English edition ofWernher von Braun'sProject Mars manuscript.[24]
Godwin's first appearance on television was in 1983 as a guest ofElwy Yost on TV Ontario'sSaturday Night at the Movies. In 1994 his U.S. based company Griffin Video commercially released a VHS tape of the Classic Pictures space documentary "One Small Step", narrated by actorTom Baker. For his 1999 bookApollo 11 The NASA Mission Reports[25] he created the first ever seamless QTVR digital panoramas of the Apollo lunar surface photography(1999)as well as the first commercial release of the digitised footage of the Apollo 11 moonwalk broadcast, both on an accompanying CDROM.[26][27] For the second volume Godwin published the declassified crew debriefing which included the transcript of the infamous crew UFO sighting.[28] He also produced and directed the 2002 direct-to-DVDApollo 11 – Moonwalk which featured the first ever time-synchronized multiple-camera-angle movie of the first moonwalk and Moon landing. The DVD first appeared in the bookApollo 11 – The NASA Mission Reports Volume 3. (2002).[29][30] Godwin has consulted on the Discovery Channel TV series Rocket Science[31] and in 2007 Mars Rising.[32][33] He also consulted on the Led Zeppelin episode of VH-1Legends television show.[citation needed] In 2004 he appeared in the Apollo 11 episode of the History Channel series "Tech Effect". He also appeared in the 2010 BBC television seriesRewind the Sixties talking about his recollections of the first Moon landing. At the Oshkosh air show, on 26 July 2019, for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 flight to the Moon, Godwin premiered newly enhanced footage of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface. Godwin reviewed the second generation inter-negative and discovered previously unseen details of the two astronauts working in the shadow of the lunar module.[34] In 2021 he was invited to participate in a series of Podcasts about space flight hosted by actorPaul McGann.[35][36]
In 2002 Godwin'sMission Reports series won theSpace Frontier Foundation'sBest Presentation of Space Award.[37]
In 2007 the International Astronomical Union's Committee for Small Body Nomenclature approved the naming of a main belt asteroid after Robert and his brother Richard Godwin for their efforts in documenting space history and raising public awareness about Near Earth Objects.4252 Godwin is an absolute magnitude 12.7 minor planet discovered in 1985 by H. Debehogne at the European Southern Observatory.[38]
From 2008 to 2011 Robert was the Space Curator at theCanadian Air and Space Museum in Toronto.[39][40]
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