#spacewalk

BIG SHOT

On this day in 1984, Bruce McCandless became the first human to fly untethered in space.

Poster in German celebrating the successful Voskhod 2 space mission crewed by cosmonauts Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov, wherein Leonov performed the first spacewalk (1965). Leonov's spacewalk lasted 12 minutes and 9 seconds.

NASA has officially announced astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams retired after 27 years. She logged 608 days in space, including a 286-day mission that started in June 2024 and ended in March 2025, and she set the women’s spacewalk-time record at 62 hours 6 minutes.

spacewalk

60 years ago today, on June 3, 1965, astronaut Ed White performed the first American spacewalk aboard Gemini IV. A test of man's ability to maneuver in space, White utilized both the attached tether and a small gas-propelled gun called the handheld self-maneuvering unit to control his movement in space. This critical first spacewalk, or EVA, would pave the way for longer, more complex spacewalks during the Gemini program, all in preparation for the EVAs of Apollo.

June 1966… Gemini X training 60 years ago... Michael Collins during Gemini X. Collins graduated from the United States Military Academy - West Point Class 1952, joined the US Air Force as a testpilot and was selected in NASA’s third group of astronauts in 1963. Selected as backup for Gemini VII, Collins became prime crew pilot for Gemini X in January 1966.  The first NASA photos showing Michael Collins wearing a NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster are dated April 1966 and in these June 1966 photos Collins wore a Speedmaster 105.003-63 wrist chronograph on long Velcro strap. Interestingly, during the Gemini X mission, Collins wore the NASA-issued Speedmaster on a leather bund-type strap underneath the David Clark space suit. Collins performed a 49-minutes long stand-up EVA (torso outside spacecraft) and an umbilical EVA-spacewalk to retrieve experiments from the Agena Target Vehicle. Collins main task was to perform celestial navigation with a handheld sextant. During his two spaceflight missions, Michael Collins accumulated 11 days 2 hours in space. (Photos: NASA)