Mary Bubb

Bubb continued working up until her death, filing a report for Reuters on Governor Bob Martinez's announcement of plans for a commercial spaceport at Cape Canaveral on 25 March 1988, the Friday before her death. Earlier that week on 21 March, she reported on the launch of five Pershing 2 missiles from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for Reuters, Associated Press, and United Press International.

At the 1987 Canaveral Press Club’s Page One Ball, NASA awarded Bubb a lifetime achievement award.

Bubb covered NASA’s Project Mercury, Project Gemini, Apollo program and Space Shuttle program. She was determined to never miss a launch, reporting on over 1,600 consecutive launches by 1980 and more than 3,000 throughout her career. When she first started, Bubbs claimed “I didn’t know a rocket from a hole in the ground,” but she later became known as a tenacious reporter with deep technical knowledge and a willingness to go to any lengths for a story. While NASA’s head of public information Hugh Harris complimented her technical expertise after her death, during the 1960s-1970s, he wrote memos about her creating disruptions at launch events.

On 5 January 1968, Bubb launched a meteorological sounding rocket from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 43 under the supervision of Pan American World Airways.

While in Jamestown, Chaffin met and married Maurice R. Bubb, changing her byline to Mary Bubb for the rest of her professional career even after the couple divorced in 1966.

In 1958, Reuters News Service hired Bubb as a full-time correspondent, a position she held for the remainder of her life. Bubb continued to freelance on the side, accepting assignments from Time-Life, People, the London Daily Telegraph, Springer News, Quick Magazine in Germany, newspapers, and wire services. She also covered for other regular space reporters when they were on vacation or unavailable on other assignments.

In 1956, Bubb and family moved to Florida out of health concerns for their youngest son.

Chaffin enlisted in the Women's Army Corps on 28 October 1943. After completing basic training, she was deployed to Oro Bay, New Guinea and Manila, the Philippines. Chaffin was the only woman reporter for the military publication Daily Pacifican, including reporting on General Tomoyuki Yamashita’s trial.

Mary Bubb (née Mary Elizabeth Chaffin, 17 September 1920 - 28 March 1988) was one of the first space journalists reporting on launches out of Cape Canaveral, Florida. Bubb was the only woman reporter for military publication Daily Pacifican during World War II and the first woman space reporter.