Lena De Winne was born and educated in Moscow Lena accomplished Masters Degree in Engineering from Moscow Power Engineering university. With her interest in linguistics, art and psychology she worked in professional sports and advertising, participated in organisation of the first professional tennis tournaments in Russia. In 1992 Lena moved to The Netherlands and in 1993 started working in support of the European flights to the Russian Mir station and eventually transferred to the area of human space flight promotion in the International Space Station Program. In parallel to her work she accomplished MBA in The Netherlands and Ph.D. in psychology in America. During these years she met Frank De Winne, a former military pilot and now a European astronaut from Belgium, who became her husband. Their life on the road in preparation to his half-year-long flight to space in 2009 as the first European commander of the International Space Station, Lena's experience of a "wife of an astronaut in flight" combined with over fifteen years of work experience gave her a unique perspective for sharing this story.

"Heart touching and passionate." -- Sir Patrick Stewart

"A much needed new perspective." -- Charles Simonyi

"When I was a kid and I saw Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, the thing it left me with was the sense of possibility for the human race. If we can put a man in space think about what we can do on earth. The men and women in this book symbolise our human creativity and ingenuity." -- Bono