- Born
- Died
- 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 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.- IMDb Mini Biography By: TrivWhiz
- SpouseJo Reisinger(1960 - May 14, 2021) (his death, 4 children)
- NBC News six decade space correspondent and commentator.
- NBC television and radio correspondent, specialized in covering space launches.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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).
- He was one of forty semi-finalists in the short-lived NASA "Journalist in Space Program," which was canceled following the 1986 Challenger tragedy.
- [About his career as a space journalist] If I died tomorrow you could say 'Jay was satisfied.'
- [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.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content