Remembering Jay Barbree (November 26, 1933 – May 14, 2021), the legendary space journalist who began covering launches from Cape Canaveral for NBC News starting in 1958. He retired from NBC News in 2017. I went to a book release party at the Florida Institute of Technology back in 2014 where Barbree appeared along with retired-astronaut Winston Scott.

NBC News correspondent Jay Barbree has covered every launch carrying astronauts into space from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station going all the way back to the Mercury and Gemini programs, through the Apollo Moon landings, Skylab, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, and, finally, all 135 Space Shuttle missions. The night of 22 August 2014 he was at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida to sign copies of his new book, Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight. Here Barbree poses with former NASA astronaut Captain Winston Scott who flew on two Space Shuttle missions, STS-72 aboard Endeavour and STS-87 aboard Columbia. Scott is also an accomplished musician.

People wait in line while Captain Scott gets his books signed by Barbree. Scott bought a number of books destined to be Christmas presents—though he jokingly asked that no one mention that fact to his family.

Jay Barbree book signing action shots.

Captain Scott enjoys a laugh while introducing Barbree for his talk, which followed an excellent dinner cooked up by F.I.T. staff.

The room listens attentively to Barbree’s often amusing tales about Neil Armstrong and other space program trivia from his long career.