Jack King, NASA's 'Voice of Apollo,' dies at 84

James Dean | Florida Today

MELBOURNE, Fla. — NASA has lost its "Voice of Apollo."

Cocoa Beach resident Jack King, who called the countdown and liftoff from Kennedy Space Center of the first moon landing mission, died Thursday at age 84.

The cause was congestive heart failure, his daughter said.

A Boston native, King arrived at Cape Canaveral as an Associated Press reporter in 1958 and two years later became NASA's public information chief here during the Mercury program, as the space race and what would become Kennedy Space Center were just ramping up.

He called launch of the Gemini 4 mission 50 years ago, and many that followed, but is best known for the Apollo 11 launch in 1969, which NASA estimates has been heard by more than a billion people.

In a steady voice broadcast by TV and radio networks on July 16, 1969, King reported that the astronauts felt good as the final seconds ticked away, and that the Saturn V rocket's engines had ignited shortly after 9:30 that morning.

"Liftoff, we have a liftoff," he said. "Thirty-two minutes past the hour, liftoff on Apollo 11. Tower cleared."

The call was "spot on," said Bill Harwood, a CBS News correspondent who began reporting from the cape in 1984 with United Press International.

"The world was literally tuned in," said Harwood, of Merritt Island. "The pressure was enormous. This was the first human flight to the moon, but you do not hear that in his voice. He was very calm. I think that really added to the whole experience."

KSC Director Bob Cabana also remembered King's reassuring demeanor during the countdown.

"Jack was a true professional and helped us understand in common English the complexities of spaceflight," Cabana said. "He was great at communicating what we do at NASA and he will be missed."

Mike Curie, NASA's news chief at Kennedy Space Center, who provided countdown commentary on NASA TV for numerous shuttle missions, called King an icon.

"He lived human spaceflight and loved it," said Curie. "He was an inspiration to me and many of my peers."

King left Florida for Houston in 1972 to the become public affairs director at NASA's Johnson Space Center. He helped negotiate a communications plan for NASA's first cooperative mission with the Soviet Union, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975, which included the first live TV coverage of a Russian launch.

He later held senior public relations positions at the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration, Occidental International Corp. and a Washington communications firm before returning to work for lead space shuttle contractor United Space Alliance. He retired from USA in 2010, the year before the final shuttle mission.

King called powerful people in the media and in politics friends, attending three presidential inaugurations, said his daughter, Beth King Post, also of Cocoa Beach. But she said he preferred to work behind the scenes, didn't take himself too seriously and was known for his dry sense of humor.

Outside work, he was a devoted Boston sports fan who enjoyed a regular gathering with friends at Bernard's Surf in Cocoa Beach and later Rusty's at Port Canaveral.

He was a great supporter of Cocoa Beach and, of course, loved the space program, said Post.

"To him, the space shuttle was spectacular and all ventures into space were, but there was nothing like the Saturn V," she said. "When he talked about that Saturn V lifting off, and the way that the press center windows shook and the power of the rocket boosters going up, there was just nothing like it."

In addition to Post, King is survived by a son, Harold "Chip" King, and five grandchildren. Another son, Billy, died in 2012, and his wife of 39 years, Evelyn, passed away in 2005.