He is best known for his work as Kennedy Space Center Chief of Public Information during projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

[2] The well-known commentary from that launch has been reused in songs and advertisements, and was included in a 2011 collection of NASA sounds from historic spaceflights that can be used as ringtones.

[4] King announced most of the crewed NASA liftoffs between 1965 and 1971 (with the sole exception of Apollo 13, which was called by his deputy, Chuck Hollinshead); the first crewed launch King called was Gemini 4 in June 1965, and the last was Apollo 15 in July 1971.

After NASA, he spent two years as Director of Public Affairs for the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration (later part of the United States Department of Energy),[7][8] and another 15 years as executive vice president of Occidental Petroleum.

[9] King officially retired in October 2010, but continued to serve as a volunteer public affairs officer for NASA.