Resting on a shelf in my office are a number of reel to reel audio tapes, each one containing original recordings from the Apollo lunar landings.
For me these tapes are a portal to another time providing as they do, a unique portal into the Apollo era.
One recording is from the Apollo 11 flight in 1969. Correspondent William McCorry leads the Voice of America live coverage of the 1969 launch. During the 45 minute recording, the flight progresses from T – 20 minutes to orbital insertion.
Listening to the recording of that historic day, one cannot help but be swept up once again in the emotion, tension and sense of anticipation associated with that first lunar landing mission, making it seem as real and exciting as it did on that July day 46 years ago.
Perhaps no one portion of that tape is as striking as the final countdown from T-6 minutes to lift-off. The final stage of that commentary remains one of the most recognised and reproduced pieces of audio from the space program of the 1960’s. Both stirring and emotive, it conveys precisely the sense of history that surrounded the launch of the first lunar landing mission its impact not diminishing despite the passage of four decades:
“LIFT-OFF! we have a Lift-off 32 minutes past the hour lift-off on Apollo 11. TOWER CLEARED!!”
The man who uttered those words, John (Jack) King, the voice of the ApolloLaunchControlCenter, passed away June 11 inCocoaFlorida at the age of 84.
Born in Boston in 1931, King initially served as Sports Editor for the Associated Press before leading the Cape Canaveral bureau of AP through 1958 and 59.
Joining NASA Public Affairs in 1960, King, as Manager of Press Operations, developed from scratch many of the press site facilities for the early flights at Cape Canaveral/Kennedy Space Center.
Most notably, Jack commentated launches from Gemini 4 through the Apollo missions to Apollo 15 before advancing in the NASA hierarchy to become Director of Public Affairs at the Manned Spacecraft Center (Now Johnson Space Center) A position encompassing education and public outreach including astronaut appearances, inter government relations and exhibit programs.. For the 1975 Apollo Soyuz Test project, King was part of a 3 member panel that negotiated a joint information plan for the first US – Soviet mission including live broadcast of the launch and landing of the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft. In 1975, following ASTP, he moved to WashingtonDC and the US Energy Research and Development Administration before leaving government service in 1977 to join Occidental International followed by P.R firm Powell Tate.
The final part of his career was spent in CocoaBeach with United Space Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed contracted to manage the processing space shuttles for flight, before retiring in 2010.
Such was Jack’s dedication to the space program that he continued to volunteer for NASA public affairs following his retirement from USA.
With Jack King’s passing, another of the silent heroes who made the first golden age of space exploration possible has been lost. His words and his legacy will however live on.
Jack King’s contribution to NASA was not merely to translate the technical chatter that comprised any countdown, but to bring that event to the general public in a very real, very human way that provided a sense of awe and wonder and a true realisation of the historical nature of the event as it unfolded.
No one who hears the Apollo 11 recording can fail to miss the tinge of very human emotion that invaded Jack’s voice at the 2 second mark in the countdown closely followed the emphatically powerful pronouncement of Liftoff as the Saturn left the launch pad.
There will be other countdowns, there will be other pioneering flights, that may in time outshine the accomplishments of Apollo; but the launch of Apollo 11 will be unique for all time as our first meaningful step toward establishing a foothold off the planet. As the next generation of space designers and explorers look outward, to the moon, Mars and points beyond, they will inevitably look back, for inspiration to the successes of Apollo and in so doing, they too will hear Jack King’s words echoing down through the years, stirring in those who strive for a renewed space exploration initiative a desire to take the next steps on our journey to the stars.
When we do launch again, the spirit of Jack King and the other silent heroes of Apollo will journey with us.
Jack King NASA Public Affairs Officer, 1931 – 2015