James Schefter, who covered the space program during the heady days of the Moon race, died Sunday at age 60 from complications associated with pulmonary fibrosis. Schefter wrote about the Moon program in his 1999 book The Race.
In the book's preface, Schefter describes an October weekend in 1957 when, as a teenager in North Dakota, he and his friends heard the electrifying news that the Russians had launched the first artificial satellite. "We didn't see Sputnik," he wrote, "but however blurred our vision, we did see the future. That weekend changed all of our lives, as it changed the world we would live in."
Six years later he began covering the U.S. space program as a young reporter for the Houston Chronicle. During the lunar missions Schefter was writing for Time and Life magazines, a job that gave him unusual access to the astronauts and their families. His work, Schefter wrote years later, amounted to "a front-row ticket to the space race, and nothing and no one could make me relinquish it."
One moment that epitomized this came during Apollo 13's aborted lunar voyage. When Jim Lovell radioed, "Houston, we've had a problem," Schefter was assigned to cover the crisis from Mission Control as the print media pool reporter. Minutes later he wrote the first wire service reports that the astronauts would have to abort their lunar landing attempt.
Schefter recalled that his job could have unexpected consequences. Some were humorous: "I aided and abetted in successful conspiracies to smuggle items to the Moon," Schefter later wrote. Others were extremely unpleasant.
One day in 1964 Schefter learned from his editor that rookie astronaut Ted Freeman had been killed in a jet crash. Somehow, the editor had gotten the news from the astronauts' boss, Deke Slayton, before the accident was made public -- indeed, before Slayton had even informed Freeman's widow. Slayton told the editor to have Schefter meet him outside Freeman's house; Schefter would get the story after Slayton talked to Faith Freeman. Schefter arrived at the house unaware that Slayton was late (after visiting the crash site, Slayton had decided he needed a drink before he could face Freeman's widow). When Schefter knocked on the door and Faith Freeman answered, she realized what had happened -- and Schefter knew he had unwittingly become the bearer of the awful news.
In the 1970s Schefter began a long stint as a writer and editor of Popular Science magazine, covering not only space missions but also automobiles, computers and electronics. Among the stories he covered was Apple's development of the Macintosh.
In 1986, NASA chose Schefter as one of 100 finalists for the Journalist in Space program, which was canceled in the wake of the Challenger disaster. Schefter also co-wrote the long-awaited memoir of Chris Kraft, NASA's first flight director and later chief of flight operations. The book, entitled Flight: My Life in Mission Control, will be published in March.
Schefter, who held a B.A. in mass communications and an M.B.A., won numerous writing awards, including a citation for the Deadline Club of New York City.
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