space.
“We were just a small group at that
time we hadn’t become the Kennedy
Space Center or anything else. There
were a handful of us working down
there and we were still doing basic
things with small rockets, and here
was Kennedy coming out and saying
land astronauts on the Moon. We
were just dazzled.”
RS: When did you start during launch
commentary?
KING: “I had done about 25
unmanned launches before I started
doing the countdowns for Apollo.
Those were the weather satellites,
communications satellites, lunar and
if came from that. I also did the
countdowns for Gemini 4 through
Gemini 12. It’s very humbling to be
told that your voice has been heard
by more than a billion people.”
RS: Where were you during the Apollo
KING: “I was in a block house when
for all the prelaunch tests to get the
experience and that was something I
will never forget.
“There was a 155 pound escape
rocket sitting on top of the spacecraft
stunned. It was a spark that was
KING: “The sound! The sound hit
on launch, and the windows were
starting to rattle and the ceiling was
coming down, and I thought the
whole building was going to come
down. It knocked Walter Cronkite right
out of his seat. Saturn V was amazing
to me. We launched it 13 times and it
worked everytime. Twelve times with
Apollo and once with Skylab.”
RS: How intense was the press back in
the early days?
KING: “The biggest group we ever
had was more than 3,000 reporters
for Apollo 11 and that included
media from all over the world. The
dedication of the general public
just amazed me. Back then people
would come out and watch the
launch from any place they could.
They were excited and focused
and paying attention to the launch.
Nobody had cell phones so people
weren’t looking down and trying to
post online or do social media stuff
like they do today. All eyes were on
the launch. It was a different time.”
RS: How did the media get launch
information?
Jack King, KSC Public Affairs Apollo Launch Commentator, follows proceedings of the wet portion of the Countdown
Demonstration Test for Apollo 12 from his console within Firing Room 2 of the Launch Control Center.
Credit: NASA via Retro Space Images
planetary probes. Those were all in
the early days. I had been during
launch countdowns for years and just
fell into the Apollo launches.”
RS: How did you get the nickname
the Voice of the Apollo?
KING: “I don’t know how I got that
nickname. I did the commentary
on all the Apollo launches so I guess
26
26
created under Gus Grissom’s boot. The
get out of the block house at about 3
o’clock in the morning. That actually
put the spacecraft down. We went
from January 1967 until November of
1967 without another launch.”
RS: What do you remember about the
launch of Apollo 4?
KING: “Back in the beginning we were
operating on a military facility and
information was very limited. Nobody
would tell you anything. When the
Vanguard blew up the press wasn’t
allowed to go out there at all. So what
I did was make sure I was available to
the press with as much information as
possible.
“One thing NASA did at the start
was hiring four really good newsmen.
I came from the Associated Press and
obviously I had to be a pretty good
writer. Paul Haney and Al Alabrando
came from the Washington Star.
These were good solid news guys who
could really write. A guy named Julian
Spears came from a newspaper in
North Carolina and he got things very
organized.
“Jim Webb was the NASA
administrator at the time and he did
a fantastic job. He would pound his
feet on Capitol Hill and really got the
NASA public affairs program going.
“We were the only ones screaming
you’ve got to have a camera in the
Apollo spacecraft. The astronauts
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