Roger D. Launius is chair of the Division of Space History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Between 1990 and 2002, he served as chief historian of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. His books on Mormon history include Kingdom on the Mississippi Revisited: Nauvoo in Mormon History, Cultures in Conflict: A Documentary History of the Mormon War in Illinois, and Differing Visions: Dissenters in Mormon History.

Roger contributed a chapter to Excavating Mormon Pasts: The New Historiography of the Last Half Century.