Jay Barbree

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 correspo