KISSES FROM SPACE

KISSES FROM SPACE tells the story of Mama dragon coming home from an adventure like no other! Snuggling her baby dragons close, she tells them of her journey and how she thought of them all along the way. This heartwarming story, beautifully written in fun, lyrical rhyme and illustrated with stunning imagery, follows a dragon family's passion for adventure and their unwavering bond, even when they're separated...

"There once was a dragon named Gravity..." For years, this opening line was recited almost daily by Anna and Anil Menon, as they entertained their young children during long commutes. The Menon family's tale took its own exciting turn when Anna was offered the chance to become an astronaut on Polaris Dawn, the first of the Polaris Program's three human spaceflight missions. The opportunity would fulfill Anna's childhood dream of going to space, but it would put the largest distance ever between her and her kids. Anna considered how she would connect with her kids as she orbited 1400 km above them at 25,000 km per hour. It was quickly clear what this mission's extra-long commute called for: a story about a dragon.

KISSES FROM SPACE tells the story of Mama dragon coming home from an adventure like no other! Snuggling her baby dragons close, she tells them of her journey and how she thought of them all along the way. This heartwarming story, beautifully written in fun, lyrical rhyme and illustrated with stunning imagery, follows a dragon family's passion for adventure and their unwavering bond, even when they're separated...

You see, even when we're apart,
we're not really alone.
I'll send kisses from space,
and I'll always come home.

This story speaks to the duality so many mothers experience when they have to be separated from their children. Inspired by Polaris Program's enthusiastic support of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital®, Anna's proceeds from the book will also be donated to benefit their efforts to cure childhood cancer.

Anna Wilhelm Menon is an American engineer and crewmember of Polaris Dawn, the first human spaceflight mission of the Polaris Program. Born in Houston in 1985, she holds a bachelor's degree in math and Spanish from Texas Christian University, and a master's degree in biomedical engineering from Duke University. Following her schooling, Anna worked at NASA as a flight controller before joining SpaceX in 2018 as a space operations engineer. The mother of two lives with her husband and children in Houston.

Keri Vasek was born and raised in Denver, where a creative writing class in high school first got her dreaming about authoring children's books. She received her Bachelor of Arts in behavioral sciences from Concordia University Texas and now lives in Houston, where she homeschools her four children and works in social media community management.

Andy Harkness is a children's book author and illustrator. His most recent solo work, Wolfboy, is published by Bloomsbury. Andy's creative passions were sparked long ago by a second-grade assignment to write and illustrate a story. An accomplished production designer, he spent 25 years at Disney Feature Animation, involved in such films as Pocahontas and Moana. Today, Andy works at Skydance Animation Studios.