"'Rocket Boys,' for one reason or the other, just happened to strike a chord across country and across world, maybe because it's set in a little coal-mining town. That's why NASA likes it - most of the engineers come from towns very similar."
Homer Hickam is an American author and former NASA engineer, best known for his memoir Rocket Boys, which inspired the film October Sky. He is also a Vietnam War veteran and has written multiple memoir and fiction works.