A conference honored the late Prof. Zdeněk Švestka, one of the great defining personalities of twentieth-century solar physics. His main scientific interest focused on solar flares. During his year at Ondřejov, he became an expert in flare spectra. Later his interests extended into white-light flares, proton flares, and their radio signatures (type II and IV bursts), which were suggestive of shock-acceleration of particles. The conference, organized by the Astronomical Institute, took place on 23-27 June 2014 in Prague. Zdeněk Švestka, born on 30 September 1925 in Prague, passed away on 2 April 2013 in Bunschoten. and Petr Heinzel,Marian Karlický, František Fárník.
Another article in this issue, Space Shuttles and their contribution, provides an overview of the Space Shuttle Program (officially called Space Transportation System - STS), which the U.S. established in the late 1960s. The program commenced on April 12, 1981, with the launching of Columbia STS-1 - the first shuttle orbital flight - and concluded with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis in July 2011, which retired the final shuttle in the fleet. The Space Shuttle program formally ended on August 31, 2011. and František Fárník.