Jim Banke

Evelyn Rose, born 2015.
Allison Joan, born 2016.
Kaylee Marie, born 2018.
Axel Alex, born 2020.

Jim Banke is an award-winning, veteran communicator with some 25 years of experience as an aerospace journalist, writer, producer, consultant, analyst and project manager. Previous employers include Florida Today, Space.com, the Space Foundation and SAIC.

His expertise and experience with the space program was recognized in 2006 by Gov. Jeb Bush, who appointed him to the Governor’s Commission on the Future of Aeronautics and Space in Florida, which led to the creation of Space Florida.

Among many industry awards for his pioneering work in online space writing, Banke was recognized by NASA in 2007 with its highest honor for non-government employees, the Distinguished Public Service Medal. In 2011 the National Space Club Florida Committee presented him with the prestigious Harry Kolcum News and Communications Award for his work telling the story of our nation's space program. During 2019 his name was permanently added to a wall exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Press Site marking his inclusion among "The Chroniclers," a hall of fame of sorts honoring the best aerospace writers and communicators who have worked at KSC.

In 2014 Banke was inducted into the Burnsville High School Hall of Fame.

For more than 20 years he provided live commentary for all launches from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on local radio.

He is owner and president of MILA Solutions, LLC, providing strategic communications, media products and project management services to the aerospace industry. He also is a NASA contractor working as senior writer for the agency's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Strategic Communications Team at NASA Headquarters, and is Managing Editor for all aeronautics and aviation-related online content on nasa.gov.

In 1987 Banke earned a B.S. in Aviation Business Administration from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla., and in 2014 earned a M.S. in Space Education, also from Embry-Riddle.

In 1994 and 1995 I traveled to Moscow to write about the Russian space program, and then in 2000 I flew to French Guiana (on the edge of the Amazon Jungle in South America) via Paris to cover the launch of an Ariane 5 rocket, avoiding Vodka to drink and monkey brains to eat as best I could.

As many of my classmates are at the age, like me, where grandchildren finally enter the picture, let me tell those of you who are still waiting or are expecting: In my whole life I was never prepared for the profound new flavor of love you experience when you hold your first grandchild. It is unlike anything you ever knew with your spouse or your own children. Not necessarily more intense, but so very, very different as to defy any better description.