"Live from Cape Canaveral": Covering the Space Race, from Sputnik to Today [Hardcover]

Jay Barbree (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2007

Some fifty years ago, while a cub reporter, Jay Barbree caught space fever the night that Sputnik passed over Georgia. He moved to the then-sleepy village of Cocoa Beach, Florida, right outside Cape Canaveral, and began reporting on rockets that fizzled as often as they soared. In "Live from Cape Canaveral," Barbree—the only reporter who has covered every mission flown by astronauts—offers his unique perspective on the space program. He shares affectionate portraits of astronauts as well as some of his fellow journalists and tells some very funny behind-the-scenes stories—many involving astronaut pranks. Barbree also shows how much the space program and its press coverage have changed over time. Warm and perceptive, he reminds us just how thrilling the great moments of the space race were and why America fell in love with its heroic, sometimes larger-than-life astronauts.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

NBC TV reporter Barbree will be a familiar figure to many readers for his frequent appearances on the Today show and his decadeslong coverage of the space program. As a cub radio announcer in Georgia in the late 1950s, Barbree (coauthor of Moon Shot) realized the next big story was taking place on the rocket launch pad in Florida. He began a string of scoops early on when, hiding in a men's room stall, he heard that a satellite launch would carry the first broadcast from space, a recorded message from President Eisenhower. Barbree's inside access allows him to give pungent details: in 1961, [t]he astronauts' crew quarters... were smelly, military, uncomfortable and too damn close to the chimpanzees' colony (a chimp having preceded man into space). While recounting the exploits of the early cowboy astronauts, he gives equal time to the tragedies of Apollo 1 and Challenger (he broke the story on the cause of the shuttle's disaster) and the near-tragedy of Apollo 13. Barbree writes with infectious enthusiasm about the glory days of space exploration, and his book will be an enjoyable introduction for a new generation and a fond remembrance for boomers. (Sept.)
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From Booklist

Barbree got his first taste of covering the space race in 1957 when he did a cursory radio report on the launch of Russia's Sputnik 1 launch, the satellite that finally lit a match under the lagging efforts of U.S. space exploration. In this engrossing memoir, he retraces the politics—domestic and international—as well as the science and technology behind the U.S. space program. Barbree has covered every mission flown by astronauts from Sputnik to the failed U.S. Vanguard, later triumphs and the tragedies of Challenger and Columbia, and the drama of Apollo 13. He includes firsthand details on the personalities behind the missions: Werner von Braun, the German-born scientist who pushed to start the U.S. program, and astronauts Alan Shepard, John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and others. With obvious love of his work, Barbree offers dramatic descriptions of the launches and revealing looks at the camaraderie among the astronauts and the reporters who covered the beat. A fascinating look at the people behind the U.S. space program. Bush, Vanessa

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Smithsonian; 1ST edition (August 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061233927
• ISBN-13: 978-0061233920
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,117,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Major Opportunity Lost, November 12, 2007

By 

Terry Sunday (El Paso, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: "Live from Cape Canaveral": Covering the Space Race, from Sputnik to Today (Hardcover)

When I first heard about Jay Barbree's "Live from Cape Canaveral," I had high hopes for it. I expected it to be a memoir of one of radio and television's longest-serving and most-respected space reporters, a man who covered America's space program "live from Cape Canaveral" virtually since its inception. I looked forward to reading the "untold" story of the developing relationship between the space program and the media, back in the pre-cable, pre-satellite days of black-and-white television and rabbit-ear antennas. I eagerly anticipated gaining new insights into the astronauts and into other space reporters of the early days--men such as Walter Cronkite and Jules Bergman--based on Mr. Barbree's personal knowledge. I expected to read previously unpublished, behind-the-scenes revelations about the nation's space missions from someone who had "been there and done that" since day one.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed on all counts.

"Live from Cape Canaveral" is basically nothing more than an extremely superficial summary of American manned space missions. And I do mean superficial. The entire Skylab flight program, for example, gets literally one short paragraph, with absolutely no mention of the near-loss of the orbital workshop on launch, or the heroic and successful efforts of three astronaut crews to restore it to habitability. In "Live from Cape Canaveral," Mr. Barbree does not take advantage of his position, his longevity as a spaceflight journalist or his alleged "insider" knowledge to add anything to the literature of American spaceflight. He passed up a golden opportunity to contribute worthwhile new information to the historical record in favor of simply re-hashing the same stories that have been told countless times before. And, as other reviewers have correctly pointed out, there are many inexcusable technical and factual errors from someone who claims to be the "go-to guy" for spaceflight questions.

"Live from Cape Canaveral" never lives up to its intriguing premise. While it is well-written and fast-paced, it could have been so much more. If you're a serious space enthusiast, I recommend you give it a pass--there's nothing here you haven't read before.

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars On the surface, exciting, enjoyable - but very misleading, December 31, 2007

By 

Sparks - See all my reviews

This review is from: "Live from Cape Canaveral": Covering the Space Race, from Sputnik to Today (Hardcover)

This book initially appears to be a fun, enjoyable, exciting read - a romp through the golden age of spaceflight. For those who believe the back cover blurb, they might never be the wiser.

However, it's all misleading surface gloss.

There are some fundamental problems with this book. For example:

- Barbree was not there for many of the conversations he pretends to remember verbatim

- One of the photos is a known fake

- Many of the crucial and easily-checked facts are incorrect.

So, if you read this book, file under "fiction." Or, for a far more reliable and satisfying read, read the excellent For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of a Mercury Astronaut

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Book Should Be Recalled by the Publisher due to Faked Photo., November 28, 2007

By 

Professor - See all my reviews

This review is from: "Live from Cape Canaveral": Covering the Space Race, from Sputnik to Today (Hardcover)

I am extremely disappointed by the quality and accuracy of the writing in this book - but with some further research my feelings now go beyond that, in that I feel publishing may actually be counterproductive, perhaps even dangerous, to history.

There's an interesting and prominent story in the news this week by science writer Andrea Thompson, "Fake Photos Alter Real Memories," suggesting that digitally altered photos not only give false impressions to those who were not there for historical events, they can even alter perceptions and memories of history for those who were there.

So why does Barbree take the irresponsible step of using a realistic-looking, but faked photo of people on the surface of the moon, with no notation made in the book that it is a fake?

There are people out there actively looking for "evidence" that humans never went to the moon, that it was all a hoax, and trying to pick apart the real photos. Using faked photos is hardly going to help with this issue. In fact, it is likely to make it worse.

And this is aside from the many previously-discussed errors of fact in the writing that Barbree scatters throughout this badly-researched book.

Barbree used this fake photo before in the first edition of another of his books. Space experts noticed, and apparently the publisher pulled it from subsequent editions. Why Barbree would try and pull the same trick again is puzzling, having been caught once. Collins, the publishers, have a reputation to uphold, and if I were them I would recall this book before it does any more damage to history. There are well-intentioned Amazon reviews being posted here suggesting this book should be given to high schoolers, when, in fact, this kind of fakery and bad writing should probably not have been published, and certainly never used as part of any educational efforts.

The space program was exciting and vivid enough of a story without trying to pump up the excitement level by resorting to inaccurate anecdotes and fake photos.