Joe Cuhaj grew up in New Jersey as a space fanatic. He would skip school to watch every launch and recovery from the late Mercury missions to the final Skylab mission all while building and flying model rockets. Cuhaj is a Navy veteran and former radio broadcaster turned author and freelance writer. He began his radio career just outside of New York City but moved to Mobile, Alabama in 1981 with his wife who is from the Port City. During this time, Cuhaj worked in various positions including news director / reporter where he applied to take part in NASA's Journalist in Space program, but he never heard back.