Harris was More Than ‘Voice of NASA’ for First Shuttle Missions

By Bob Granath

“We’ve gone for main engine start. We have main engine start and we have liftoff. Liftoff of America’s first Space Shuttle and the shuttle has cleared the tower,” said NASA Public Affairs launch commentator Hugh Harris as the world watched and listened when the agency’s long-awaited first Space Shuttle rose into the skies over Florida’s Space Coast.

A former director of Public Affairs at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Harris died Feb. 14, 2023 at the age of 90. He worked in increasingly responsible roles for the space agency from 1963 until his retirement in 1998. Harris was known as the “Voice of NASA” for early Space Shuttle missions, but his career covered much more.

“Although he is best known to the public for his calm, professional commentary on the progress of launch preparations and launch of the Space Shuttle,” a web feature on Kennedy’s website stated, “his primary accomplishments were in directing an outreach program to the general public, news media, students and educators, as well as business and government leaders.”

Harris was born in Cleveland in December 1932. At an early age, he showed an interest in public speaking while volunteering at a local radio station.

“I had my own (radio) program in Cleveland from the time I was 14 (until) 18. It was a dramatic show that I helped write and direct,” he said.

Harris served in the U.S. Army as an information specialist from 1952 to 1954. After his military service, Harris graduated from Western Reserve University in Cleveland in 1956.

Prior to joining NASA, Harris was employed as a radio newscaster, a reporter with a metropolitan daily newspaper and a writer for Standard Oil of Ohio. He began his NASA career in 1963 as an information specialist at the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland.

At the time, the Lewis center, along with all of NASA, was gearing up for the effort to meet President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon.

“For weeks and weeks, I went out on the road recruiting because NASA was in a tremendous buildup and looking for talented engineers and scientists,” he said.

The following year, Harris was involved in arranging for NASA exhibits at the New York World’s Fair, which ran for two six-month seasons in 1964 and 1965. More than 51 million people attended the fair that is remembered as a showcase of mid-20th-century American culture and technology. The emerging Space Age was well represented.

“(There were) full scale rockets and a lot of exhibits,” he said. “It was a lot of fun and very exciting.”

Harris was promoted to chief of the Public Information Office for Lewis in 1968 as the first piloted Apollo missions were beginning. During that period, he made frequent trips to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the Johnson Space Center in Houston to support Public Affairs activities.

“As a matter of fact, for Apollo 11 I spent a month at Johnson,” he said. “I came down to Kennedy for a couple of the Apollos.”

Harris transferred to Kennedy in 1975 where he was responsible for planning and administering information activities to keep the public informed on the space program. In that role, he provided the broadcast countdown commentary for approximately 100 space vehicle launches from expendable rockets to many of the first flights of the Space Shuttle Program — including STS-1.

“That was certainly a very hectic time and we actually probably had more press than we had for most of the Apollo missions,” Harris said, recalling that first shuttle launch on April 12, 1981. “There was a tremendous amount of interest.”

However, Harris believed that more than one person should be prepared for the key role of launch countdown commentator. He selected others to sit next to his console on the back row of the Launch Control Center’s Firing Room and watch and listen. Harris then allowed them to perform the commentary going out over NASA Television and news media outlets during early stages of the launch countdown such as propellant loading of the shuttle’s external fuel tank. The trainees then would take over the entire countdown through liftoff.

In 1985, Harris became deputy director of the Public Affairs Office, participating in the management of all Kennedy public affairs and education awareness activities, as well as NASA wide planning in these functional areas.

Hugh Harris was appointed director of Public Affairs in May 1992. As such, he guided the center’s media activities, special guest tours and briefings, as well as the operation of the Kennedy visitor complex.

During the mid-1990s, Harris led in creating “The Chroniclers,” a wall designated to honor the top NASA and contractor public affairs professionals and news media journalists who helped tell the space agency’s story over the years.

After Harris retired from NASA on April 3, 1998, he volunteered at the NASA News Center helping with launch week requests from members of the media, arranged tours and providing mentorship for younger public affairs officers.

Harris shared his NASA experience and lessons learned with nuclear industry leaders through conferences held by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency in Europe and Japan and in the United States through the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Harris also has served as a consultant in the fields of contingency planning, business management and public relations. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Florida chapter of the NASA Alumni League and on an advisory board to the Brevard Community College Planetarium.

Significant awards presented to Harris include the NASA Equal Opportunity Medal in 1979 and Exceptional Service Medals in 1985 and 1988. The Space Coast Chapter of Federally Employed Women honored him with its Distinguished Service Award for 1978-79.

Harris was a long-time resident of Cocoa Beach, Florida. He is survived by his wife, Cora, two sons, a daughter, six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

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Hugh Harris Counts Down First Space Shuttle Launch

Check out this short NASA video as Hugh Harris counts down for the liftoff of the Space Shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981.