Jay Barbree (born November 26, 1933) is a correspondent for NBC News, focusing on space travel. Barbree is the only journalist to have covered every manned space mission in the United States, beginning with the first American in space, Alan Shepard aboard Freedom 7 in 1961, continuing through to the last mission of the Space Shuttle, Atlantis's STS-135 mission in July 2011. Barbree has been present for all 135 space shuttle launches, and every manned launch for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo eras. In total, Barbree has been witness to 166 manned space launches.
NBC News six decade space correspondent and commentator.
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Quote
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[About his record of covering every US manned space mission beginning with the first in 1961] "I'm proud that I've been able to accomplish something that can never be matched," Barbree said. He said he's sure other journalists will cover as many launches in the future, but no one else will be able to say they did so from the start.
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[About his career as a space journalist] If I died tomorrow you could say 'Jay was satisfied.'
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Fact
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He grew up on his family's farm in Early County, Georgia, USA.
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In May 1987, Jay Barbree had a heart attack and was clinically dead for five minutes, without breath or heartbeat. A combination of CPR, stimulant drugs, and defibrillator shocks revived him. One of his books, entitled "The Day I Died: One Man's Successful Battle Back From the Dead," is his memoir of those events, and the crucial new medical treatments he received under the direction of Dr. Onkar Narula.
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In 2011, Barbree the Space Foundation awarded him the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award, in recognition his role in sculpting the way Americans view and understand space.
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As of 2014, Barbree remains a fixture at Kennedy Space Center, and continues to report on space and NASA issues.
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The only American astronauts for which he did not witness take offs were those who launched at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Russian operated Kazak launch site for International Space Station missions utilizing Russian spacecraft. This is due to the conclusion of the NASA Space Shuttle program, making (at least temporarily) Russian spacecraft the only means used by astronauts traveling to the International Space Station, and thereby making Baikonur the sole launch site used for manned missions to the station.
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In one of his self-paid trips to Cape Canaveral, he witnessed the successful rocket launch of Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958, and decided to move permanently to the Canaveral area, continuing to call in his reports to WALB radio and TV in Albany, Georgia. About four months later, Barbree was hired by Cocoa Beach, Florida radio station WEZY, the city closest to Canaveral, working as a traffic reporter to earn his keep, and covering the space program as stories arose. Six months after starting his employment with WEZY radio, he was hired by NBC, first as part time, and full time within one year.
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After Sputnick in 1957, Barbree was so enthralled with space flight that he spent his own funds to travel to Cape Canaveral, Florida more than once, and then phoning in radio reports about rocket testing to WALB radio and TV, his Albany, Georgia employer at that time.
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He was one of forty semi-finalists in the short-lived NASA "Journalist in Space Program," which was canceled following the 1986 Challenger tragedy.
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His motivation to be a space reporter was that shooting rockets into space seemed like the manifestation of the space themed movies and television shows he had seen growing up and as a young adult, such as Buck Rogers (1950), Forbidden Planet (1956), and Conquest of Space (1955).
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In 1995, NASA recognized him "as the only journalist known to have covered all 100 manned space flights" [up until that time] with an engraved memento, which was presented to him by Alan Shepherd and then Space Shuttle Commander Robert Gibson (as Robert 'Hoot' Gibson).
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Jay and his wife Jo have three surviving children, Steve, Alicia, and Karla. Their fourth child, a son named Scott, died as an infant following premature birth.
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NBC television and radio correspondent, specialized in covering space launches.
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Moon Shot
1994
TV Movie documentary book
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Today
2014
TV Series
Himself
John Glenn: A Life of Service
2013
TV Movie documentary
Himself - NBC News
NASA: Triumph and Tragedy
2009
TV Series documentary
Himself - Space Correspondent
When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions
2008
TV Mini-Series documentary
Himself - Space Correspondant
Secrets of the Moon Landings
2007
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Sputnik Fever
2007
Documentary
Himself - Participant
The Florida Blue
1997
TV Special
Himself
Moon Shot
1994
TV Movie documentary
Himself - NBC News Reporter (voice)
NBC News
1940
TV Series
Himself - Correspondent
Known for movies
Sputnik Fever (2007) as Himself - Participant
Moon Shot (1994) as Writer
When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions (2008) as Himself - Space Correspondant
$20 Million
