Space journalist Jay Barbree died Friday in Florida. The veteran NBC News correspondent was 87.
Barbree began covering NASA in 1957 when the space agency was struggling with a series of humiliating rocket explosions.
In 1958, Barbree joined NBC News and began a storied career that would span 61 years.
He went on to cover every human space mission to leave U.S. soil, beginning with Alan Shepherd’s Freedom 7 flight in 1961, until the last space shuttle mission in 2011.
In all, Barbree reported on 166 human spaceflight missions.
Along the way, he authored several books focusing on NASA and the space race, including “Moon Shot” and “Live from Cape Canaveral: Covering the Space Race from Sputnik to Today.”
He is survived by his wife, Jo, who he married in 1960, two daughters and several grandchildren.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
