Former Nasa station manager Bill Way died from cancer at the age of 73 yesterday.

Mr. Way helped set up the station on Cooper's Island in 1961 and played a key role in space exploration by tracking shuttle missions for 37 years until it closed.

His team's job included monitoring shuttles every 90 minutes as they came around the earth, and receiving scientific data transmitted by units left on the moon following lunar missions.

Arriving in Bermuda from California with childhood sweetheart Margie and deciding never to leave, Mr. Way had seven children, two of whom died in tragic circumstances; he was also well-known on the local tennis circuit for his dedication to the Bermuda Lawn Tennis Association.

Eldest daughter Margaret Mattix paid tribute last night and recalled the excitement of having a father involved in space exploration.

"It played a huge part in his life," Mrs. Mattix told The Royal Gazette.

"He had a lifelong interest in science and engineering. He was involved in Apollo programmes. When we were little he would tell us the stories and we would get to meet the astronauts."

Sometimes those stories would be tragic, in particular the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster which claimed the lives of seven astronauts when it blew up shortly after take-off.

Mr. Way and his colleagues had been at the Nasa station waiting for the spacecraft to 'come over the hill' only to witness what they initially thought was the rocket boosters coming off early. They later realised it was in fact an explosion.

Speaking to this newspaper some years later, Mr. Way said: "It was a terrible thing to watch. They are brave people going up there and they do it because it's their calling. They know the risks and in this case the risks got them."

However, his passion did not subside, and he retained a belief that the space programme should go on.

Mr. Way was manager of the Nasa station for the last four years of its operation, up to 1999, when it was replaced by a tracking-relay satellite.

When the team tracked its last shuttle mission in January 1998, it received a 'thank you' for its service direct from Endeavour Captain Terrence Wilcutt.

In the summer of 1996, Mr. Way lost his son, 35-year-old Billy, Bermuda's number one tennis player who won a bronze medal in the 1993 CAC Games in Mexico, when he was hit by a taxi as he crossed one of Manhattan's busiest roads, Madison Avenue.

Billy's old university friend John F. Kennedy Jr. attended the funeral.

That came 16 years after Mr. Way's daughter Kathleen died aged 20 from injuries received in a car crash in Somerset.

Describing her father's character, Mrs. Mattix said last night: "He was a wonderful man. He was interested in every person he ever met; very fun-loving and children loved him. He was the best father."

Mrs. Mattix has flown over from the States to be with the rest of the family in Paget. Mr. Way also leaves sons Brian, Kevin and Michael and daughter Kelly, and 12 grandchildren.