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Bruce McCandless: Going where no-one else had gone before
Bruce (1937 " 2017) was a Naval Officer and a NASA astronaut, and what he did in 1984 was not only a first, it was magnificent to see.
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Bruce was on the space shuttle Challenger, when he risked going untethered into space, using a jet-powered backpack.
He climbed into the 300-pound backpack, called a Manned Maneuvering Unit and eased out of the shuttle’s cargo bay.
He then became the first person ever to make an untethered spacewalk.
By earth measurements, he was moving nearly 18,000 miles an hour, but at his extreme altitude, he was moving just a foot a second.
This is how he described the experience:
“I was grossly over-trained. I was just anxious to get out there and fly. I felt very comfortable ... It got so cold my teeth were chattering and I was shivering, but that was a very minor thing. ... I’d been told of the quiet vacuum you experience in space, but with three radio links saying, ‘How’s your oxygen holding out?’, ‘Stay away from the engines!’ and ‘When’s my turn?’, it wasn’t that peaceful ... It was a wonderful feeling, a mix of personal elation and professional pride: it had taken many years to get to that point.”
Bruce wanted the famous picture of him we used today to inspire a new generation of astronauts. “I like to encourage folks to look at that and say, ‘Well, I can do better than that.’ “
Editor's Note
To learn more click here and here.
Thank you to my friend and webmaster Jon Barnes for suggesting this story.
In the next KazanToday:
The remarkable difference the kindness of one high school has made.
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