Reg Turnill spoke to the BBC in 2010 about the Apollo 13 accident
Reg Turnill, the BBC's aerospace correspondent from the beginning of the space age through to the shuttle era, has died aged 97.
After being sent to Moscow to cover the first manned space launch, he regularly reported from Cape Canaveral and Houston on the Apollo Moon missions.
In 1970, he broke the story to the world that Apollo 13 was in trouble.
Mr Turnill's eldest son confirmed the news of his father's death to BBC Radio Kent.
Michael Turnill, 72, said his father was "always very committed to what he was doing" and was still writing stories just eight weeks ago. He added that his mind was still "remarkable" at the age of 97.
Mr Turnill's career began with the Press Association in Fleet Street when he was 15. He stayed with the news agency as a staff reporter until recruited by the BBC in 1956 as assistant industrial correspondent.
In 1958, he was made the BBC's air and space correspondent, with a brief to cover defence.
He interviewed all of the Apollo astronauts and was friends with Wernher von Braun, the architect of Nasa's moon programme.
He wrote a tribute to the late Neil Armstrong in the October 2012 edition of Astronomy Now magazine and also contributed to the BBC's coverage of the astronaut's death.
In his later years, he lived in Sandgate, Kent, with his wife Margaret.
Mr Turnill passed away peacefully in the early hours of this morning at the Pilgrim's Hospice in Ashford, where he had been for the past month.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21430057#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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