Jack King, the iconic voice behind the NASA’s launch countdowns and commentary during the space race, has died at the age of 84. Former astronauts and NASA officials remember the contributions King made to the golden age of space flight.
Without Jack King, the manned NASA missions of the 1960s would have had a much different tone for the American people.
According to a statement from NASA , King went to work for the space agency in 1960 after a couple years as a reporter for the Associated Press , covering the early space program in Cocoa Beach , Florida. Up to that time, most of the NASA launches were classified and conducted on military rockets.
In an interview from 2002, King described his difficulty getting information out to the public in that atmosphere.
“The biggest PR job I had to do was with our own people in order to get information that I could pass out to the news media. These were the early days when things were just starting out.”
Hugh Harris, former director of NASA Public Affairs, explained that King was instrumental to connecting the new civilian space program to the public.
“Jack helped establish the original systems to ensure the news media received timely and accurate information about both the early human flight programs and the unmanned missions.”
Then in May 1961, John F. Kennedy ushered in the space race for the public with his pledge to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. According to CNN , in 2009, Jack King described the speech as a “big boost” to the agency that already had great leadership and management.
He said, “Everything started to fall into place.”
That boost gave King the opportunity to speak with the nation on a regular basis, counting down almost every launch from Gemini 4 to Apollo 15, including Apollo 11, which finally delivered on Kennedy’s promise.
Former shuttle astronaut and Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana remembered King’s ability to communicate.
“Jack King counted down the launch of Apollo 11 and all of us watching on television will never forget his calm, reassuring demeanor. Jack was a true professional and helped us understand in common English the complexities of space flight. He was great at communicating what we do at NASA and he will be missed.”
In 1972, King went on to become the director of Public Affairs for NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, accepting new responsibilities for connecting the public with educational outreach and astronaut appearances.
He then negotiated the publicity program for the joint Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975 that would involve television coverage.
Jack King left government work in 1979 and began doing public relations in the private sector, including news media relations for United Space Alliance (USA) — a lead NASA contractor for shuttle operations. He finally retired in 2010, but still did volunteer work for NASA.
Here is some of Jack King’s work as NASA’s voice in the Apollo 4 mission, along with commentary from Walter Cronkite.
[Image Credit: NASA]
