1965
An American Walks In Space
One hundred and 20 miles above the earth, Major Edward H. White
II opens the hatch of the Gemini 4 and steps out of the capsule,
becoming the first American astronaut to walk in space. Attached to the craft
by a 25-foot tether and controlling his movements with a hand-held oxygen
jet-propulsion gun, White remained outside the capsule for just over 20 minutes.
As a space walker, White had been preceded by Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei A.
Leonov, who on March 18, 1965, was the first man ever to walk in space.
Implemented at the height of the space race, NASA’s Gemini
program was the least famous of the three U.S.-manned space programs conducted
during the 1960s. However, as an extension of Project Mercury, which put the
first American in space in 1961, Gemini laid the groundwork for the more
dramatic Apollo lunar missions, which began in 1968.
The Gemini space flights
were the first to involve multiple crews, and the extended duration of the
missions provided valuable information about the biological effects of
longer-term space travel. When the Gemini program ended in 1966, U.S.
astronauts had also perfected rendezvous and docking maneuvers with other
orbiting vehicles, a skill that would be essential during the three-stage
Apollo moon missions.