Robert Vogel was born 1961 on a Carnival Monday in the Hessian village Gross Gerau, not far from Mainz, which should explain his cheerful nature. Three consecutive incidents in his childhood are responsible, though, for the fact that he didn't get into carnival or other "typically German" likings but rather got into the spirit of feeling at home in foreign worlds:

• the German cult television show "Raumpatrouille ORION" (even though he hid behind the couch when the FROGS appeared!)
• witnessing the first manned moon landing (even though he got into real trouble with his mom for watching television in the middle of the night!)
• reading the first PERRY RHODAN novel ("When I grow up, I want to be a Great Administrator, too!")

All this set the course for his future. Robert's consumption of fantasy and science fiction literature grew constantly, and soon he had quite a big collection. Already at the age of 12 he got into contact with other fans, and since 1977 he has attended over 500 conventions and astronomical / spaceflight events. His interest in the fantastic in every form could not be damped down by the "usual" obstacles of life like teenage years, apprenticeship and job (industrial clerk) either; on the contrary.

His profound knowledge of the genre became soon well known in the SF scene, so it was only a matter of time until he got invited to conventions to hold panels. Also the media noticed him soon and engaged him as expert advisor for various shows. The channel VOX invited him as special guest for the STAR WARS cult movie night 1999.
He got better known in the specialized press starting with the introduction of brand new fantasy and science fiction television series and the regular BABYLON 5 column in the genre magazine TV-HIGHLIGHTS. Soon after, he started interviewing well-known actors at conventions. His laid-back and unconventional press coverage was very well received by the readership. Contacts with movie and tv-production companies were established, and Robert visited MGM studios in Vancouver as the first German journalist, to do a coverage on the shooting of the successful television series STARGATE SG-1. After publishing his experiences and articles, he was invited by RTL2, 20th CENTURY FOX HOME VIDEO and PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO to visit the shootings of, amongst others, ANDROMEDA and ENTERPRISE.

Currently, Robert Vogel is working as a freelance journalist for German and international magazines like TV HIGHLIGHTS, MOVIESTAR, FANTASTISCH, SPACE VIEW, MULTIMANIA and ASTRONOMIE HEUTE. He is co-author of the ANDROMEDA special edition magazine, and his first solo publication "HINTER DEN KULISSEN VON STARGATE SG-1" ("Behind the scenes of STARGATE SG-1") came out in March 2003.

Since 2003, Robert is also a fairly regular visitor at events of the European Space Authority ESA. As one of very few accredited journalists he witnessed the landing of the HUYGENS-probe on the Jupiter moon Titan Live in the space center ESOC. By now he has already met quite a few NASA and ESA astronauts, like Thomas Reiter, Ed Mitchell (APOLLO 14) and Charles Duke (Apollo 16) as well as leading spaceflight experts from many countries.

All his enthusiasm for the fantastic genre, astronomy and spaceflight nonwithstanding, Robert Vogel still finds the time for other interests, as well: He loves the music of the 60s, likes going out for dancing and enjoys the company of nice people to chat with. His great weakness are pasta dishes.