Veteran Space Journalist Howard Benedict Dead at 77

Howard Benedict, seen here posing with a display erected in his honor at the Kennedy Space Center in 2004, died Monday, April 25. CREDIT:

Howard Benedict, 77, known as the "dean" of space reporting and former Executive Director of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, died Monday, April 25, at his Florida home.

In the early years of the United States space program, Benedict introduced generations to space exploration, covering more than 2,000 missile and rocket launches as the senior aerospace writer for The Associated Press.

He covered the first 65 U.S. human space flights, from Alan Shepard's Mercury mission in 1961 to the 34th Space Shuttle mission in 1990, for 31 of the 37 years he worked for the wire service.

"Howard Benedict's professional life recorded the manned space program from its earliest days. Always fair and objective, his coverage became the standard for America and indeed for the world," said former U.S. Senator John Glenn and the first astronaut to orbit the Earth. "Howard became a loyal and wonderful, personal friend to me and to all the astronauts."

Benedict authored three books about the space program (NASA: A Quarter Century of Space Achievement in 1984; NASA: The Journey Continues in 1989; and At Home in Space in 1995) and in 1994 co-wrote Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon with fellow reporter Jay Barbree and astronauts Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton.