The first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, died today due to complications stemming from heart surgery.

NBC News–specifically NBC’s long-time space correspondent Jay Barbree–broke the news around 3 PM on MSNBC, with Lester Holt and Brian Williams following shortly thereafter with an NBC special report.

Barbree has been covering the US. space program for NBC since 1961. That longevity surely had something to do with the fact that after Armstrong died–around 2:45 Pm ET–Barbree was one of the first to hear about it, according to Brian Stelter.

The next TV news outlet to report Armstrong’s death was Fox News at 3:17 PM, followed by ABC News, at 3:27 PM. Neither CBS or CNN has reported the news, as of 3:29 PM.

Update: CNN reported the news at 3:43 PM, with CBS News presenting a special report at 4:11 PM.

At 1:32amET this morning, as the cable news networks looked on, confirmation that NASA’s rover Curiosity landed safely on Mars, after traveling hundreds of millions of miles through space. “Touchdown confirmed. We’re safe on Mars,” was the call. CNN International was simulcast on CNN with NASA reporter John Zarrella contributing. On Fox News, Marianne Rafferty was joined by former NASA astronaut Tom Jones and NBC’s space man of 51 years, Jay Barbree, phoned in to MSNBC for their coverage. Here’s the moment when Curiosity touched down, and the excitement at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory just north of Los Angeles.

The Space Shuttle Discovery has been circling Washington DC this morning, making a low-altitude fly-by of the Nation’s Capital before being taken to the Smiths0nian for display.

CNN provided by far the most coverage, covering the fly-by almost non-stop between 9:50 AM and 11 AM. John Zarella and Lizzie O’Leary covered the fly-by and landing for the network.

Fox News provided rolling coverage early on, and started t cut back and forth between the shuttle and other news starting around 10:15 AM. Doug McKelway and Phil Keating covered the event for the network in the field.

MSNBC provided by far the least coverage, only showing around 20 seconds of footage between 9:50 and 10:49, before finally providing live coverage of the final fly-by and landing around 10:49. Jay Barbree reported for the network for the landing. Among the topics covered by MSNBC instead of showing footage of the shuttle: new comments regarding Mitt Romney strapping his dog on the roof of the car, NASCAR’s Tony Stewart visiting the White House and earthquakes in Chile and Papua New Guinea.

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NBC’s veteran space correspondent Jay Barbree is celebrating his 78th birthday today with the launch of an Atlas V rocket carrying the Mars rover Curiosity. Barbree has been covering the space program for NBC for 50 years and has covered every manned space mission — and many unmanned, like today’s. This morning during a live report with MSNBC’s Alex Witt, Barbree stumbled over a couple words saying, “I’ll say it right. Give me a break, it’s my birthday. I’m 78 today!” Barbree called the Curiosity mission, “the greatest space science adventure we’ve had to date.”

One of the broadcast staples of Space Shuttle launches is NBC’s Jay Barbree. Barbree has covered every manned space launch from Cape Canveral, dating back to 1961. On Friday, he was there as the last Space Shuttle mission launched.

NBCUDirect spoke to Barbree about his career, and covering space:

Shuttle Atlantis and its four-person crew — the smallest since 1983 — lifted off from Kennedy Space Center this morning just a couple minutes behind schedule.

CBS News sent “Evening News” anchor Scott Pelley to Cape Canaveral for coverage of the shuttle program’s final mission. He’ll anchor his first remote broadcast from KSC tonight.

NBC’s Brian Williams anchored a special report from New York. NBC’s space man for 53 years, Jay Barbree has covered all of manned American space flight. Today’s was his 166th mission — by comparison this was the 135th mission for the Shuttle program.

Josh Elliott anchored ABC’s special, and Bill Hemmer anchored FOX’s special from New York.

The NBC News special report, after the jump…

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Tomorrow at 11:25 AM ET, the Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch, the final launch of NASA’s Space Shuttle Program, which first sent craft into orbit in 1981. There is a strong chance that weather could delay the launch, but that isn’t stopping the broadcast networks and cable news organizations from planning extensive coverage to mark the occasion.

NBC News is planning a special report to be anchored by Brian Williams in New York. Jay Barbree, the only journalist to cover every manned space mission, will “call” the launch from Cape Canaveral.

ABC News is planning a special report to be anchored by “Good Morning America” news anchor Josh Elliott in New York. Matt Gutman will be on the scene in Florida for the network.

CBS News is sending “CBS Evening News” anchor Scott Pelley to Cape Canaveral, where he will anchor a special report as well as that evening’s broadcast.

On Cable:

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The space shuttle Atlantis lifted off at Cape Canaveral in Florida this afternoon for a final time. (AP story) Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC all took the NASA video and audio feed live from take off to orbit. Here’s how it looked:

FNC dropped their standard ticker and put up a pretty cool display with the flight data.

Fox Business Network also carried the launch, though the other biz nets, Bloomberg and CNBC, did not.

Astronaut Tom Jones appeared from Washington on FNC with Megyn Kelly. John Zarrella reported from Kennedy Space Center for CNN and Jay Barbree was there for MSNBC. Barbree is the only journalist to have covered every manned space mission in US history.

Space correspondent Jay Barbree begins his 51st year with NBC News today. Barbree began at NBC July 21, 1958. He is the only journalist who has covered all of the USA’s manned space missions and many robotic missions as well. He has reported from Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center on all the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, and space shuttle flights, NBC News, NBC Radio News, and MSNBC.

And when he’s not reporting for NBC, he’s an accomplished author. He has written or co-authored several books, including “Moon Shot” and “Live From Cape Canaveral.” Barbree also wrote “Pilot Error”, which was an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man. Barbree survived a 1987 near-fatal heart attack, which he wrote about in his book “The Day I Died.”

Jay Barbree reporting from Cape Canaveral for NBC News in the early 1960s.