Jay Barbree's new book: 'œLive From Cape Canaveral'

William Atkins
Sunday, 09 September 2007 20:05

Opinion and Analysis

Jay Barbree, NBC television and radio correspondent who specializes in covering space launches, no doubt has written a book that all space enthusiasts will want to read. The book is called “Live From Cape Canaveral: Covering the Space Race, from Sputnik to Today”.       

Barbree also co-authored the New York Times best-selling book “Moon Shot”. In addition, Barbree and his team of NBC reporters won an Emmy for coverage of the NASA Apollo 11 Moon landing.

An excerpt from the Barbree book appears on the MSNBC website “Soar into a behind-the-scenes look of space”

Jeff Foust, in The Space Review, says, “Jay Barbree, in “Live from Cape Canaveral”, provides a unique perspective: that of a journalist who covered the American space program since virtually its inception.”

 Foust makes some clear and interesting distinctions in how reporters covered the early years of NASA and those that cover it today.

Todd Halvorson, Florida Today, says, “Now 73, the longtime NBC correspondent and Merritt Island resident is an institution who can lay claim to multiple scoops during a 50-year aerospace journalism career. No one else has covered all 150 human space expeditions that have blasted off from Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.”

Marcia Dunn, writer for AP Aerospace, states, “What is remarkable is that Barbree has been present for all 150 of NASA's manned launches. No other journalist comes close. Many of those who competed with him over the years either quit, retired or died. And even a sudden-death experience in 1987 did not ruin Barbree's record. He dropped dead while running on the beach, was revived by medics and managed to recuperate in plenty of time for the first post-Challenger mission.”