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"Leland Melvin is the only person to have caught a football in the NFL and flown into space with NASA. Now young readers can learn all about Melvin's amazing journey from the gridiron to the international space station. Three years after his release from the Detroit Lions, Melvin put his love of science and exploration to use at the Nondestructive Evaluation Sciences Branch for NASA. Nine years later, he was selected to be an astronaut. But Melvin's journey to the stars wasn't easy - while training for his third space walk, he lost his hearing, and was medically disqualified to fly in space. Still, he didn't let this devastating injury keep him down. Today, Melvin hosts the Lifetime competition series Child Genius, is an amateur photographer, and wrote a song with music superstar will.i.am, which he played in space! In Chasing Space, Leland will use his own incredible life story to inspire young explorers to follow their dreams. He will also introduce readers to the fascinating creative and scientific challenges he had to deal with in space with do-it-yourself experiments at the back of the book. With 16 pages of full-color photographs and a durable, hardcover format, Chasing Space Young Readers' Edition is the perfect book for young scientists, explorers, and readers looking to be inspired by a true Renaissance man."