Mark Pestana, Colonel, USAF (ret), until recently served as a research pilot at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards AFB, California. He is a member of the International Association of Astronomical Artists, the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles, the American Society of Aviation Artists, and the U.S. Air Force Art Program. His aerospace art is in private, corporate, and government collections, and nine of his paintings are in the Pentagon collection. Among many awards, he received First Place in the 2007 Aviation Week & Space Technology Magazine’s Art competition, Space category; and First Place in 1990 US Air Force art competition.

Mark served in the US Air Force as a space operations engineer and as a Command Pilot, flying over 5000 hours, and logged 213 combat intelligence sorties. Mark served in the NASA Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center as a Flight Crew Operations Engineer in the development of the International Space Station. He also has the unique distinction of designing nine Space Shuttle mission patches for the astronauts. Mark earned a BS in Natural Sciences and an MS in Systems Management/Research & Development.