Miles O’Brien leaving CNN

Veteran CNN anchor and reporter Miles O’Brien, who led the network’s coverage of space and aviation, is being let go after a 16-year tenure at the cable news channel.

“Miles has made many contributions to CNN over the years,” CNN said in a statement Wednesday. “He is a terrific reporter and we wish him all the best.”

His departure comes as part of an effort to consolidate the network’s science and technology reporting into its Planet in Peril franchise, produced out of the “Anderson Cooper 360” show. Along with O’Brien, who served as CNN’s chief technology and environment correspondent, six producers who work in the science, environment and technology unit in Atlanta are leaving CNN.

“We want to integrate environmental, science and technology reporting into the general editorial structure rather than have a stand-alone unit,” said CNN spokeswoman Barbara Levin.

In a statement, O’Brien said he had “loved every minute” at CNN and offered praise to the people with whom he’d worked.

O’Brien, a skilled pilot, was CNN’s point person for coverage of aviation disasters and NASA. He also sought to be the first journalist in space, securing a deal with NASA that would have allowed him to fly on the space shuttle. The plan was scuttled, however, after the 2003 crash of the Columbia shuttle.

-- Matea Gold