Jay Barbree(1933-2021)

Jay Barbree was a correspondent for NBC News for 59 years, primarily covering the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), the United States space program. He specifically focused on manned space travel. He was the only journalist of any kind, from any medium, to have covered every single manned space mission in and from United States territory, from the very first American manned space shot, and the second human being in space overall, that being 'Alan Shepard (I)' aboard Freedom 7 on May 6, 1961. He continued to cover NASA and manned space flights to and through the last launch and mission of the Space Shuttle program, Atlantis's STS-135, From July 8 through July 21, 2011. Barbree was present for all manned Mercury launches, all Gemini launches, all Apollo launches, and all 135 space shuttle launches, comprising, in total, in person reporting on 166 United States manned space launches, plus many other unmanned space launches. At over 80, Barbree continued part time as a correspondent for NBC News, appearing on the July 25, 2014 episode of The Daily Rundown (2010) with Chuck Todd to discuss the 45th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing mission, and again on the August 26, 2014 episode, from the studios of NBC affiliate WESH-TV to discuss Chuck leaving "The Daily Rundown" to move to Meet the Press (1947) and all of Jay's appearances on "Meet The Press" and to give Chuck a good send off. Additionally, Barbree wrote or co-wrote seven books, and many, many newspaper and magazine articles, almost all about NASA or space issues.