June 3 – Anniversary of the First American Spacewalk

nPostednon June 3, 2014

Onenof the big deals that most astronauts seem to want to do – and thatnsome of them get to do – is to do a spacewalk.

nThatnmeans putting on their bulky, cumbersome pressure suits, goingnthrough the hatch, and being outside of their spaceships.

nItnmeans becoming tiny little satellites in orbit around the Earth,nseparated from the gorgeous blue-and-white planet and blazingnsunlight and incredible spangled sky by nothing more than thengold-plated visors on their helmets!

nThenfirst human to do an EVA (extra-vehicular activity) was a Sovietncosmonaut named Alexei Leonov, who accomplished his spacewalk onnMarch 18, 1965. On this date in 1965, astronaut Ed White became thenfirst American to do an EVA. n

nWhitenand his crewmate James McDivitt both had to put on pressure suits,nbecause their Gemini capsule did not have an airlock. They had tondepressurize the entire spacecraft. Then White tried to open thenhatch, but the latch was stuck. n

nMcDivittnhad seen that this kind of latch had failed to open in a vacuumnchamber test on Earth, so he was able to help White get the latch tonwork and the hatch to open. Then White used a hand-held oxygen-jetngun (also called a zip gun) to maneuver out of the capsule. The firstnsight that met his eyes was the state of Hawaii serenely floating innthe Pacific Ocean. n

nWhitenwas float about 5 meters (15 feet) away from the capsule, where henbegan to learnto maneuver. He found it easy to learn how to use thenzip gun to move, but it ran out of O-2 all too soon. n

Onenof the problems during the spacewalk was that the voice-operatednswitch (VOX) on their helmets didn’t work, and White couldn’t hearnthe people at Mission Control with either VOX or the Push-to-Talknmode. (The guys at Mission Control could hear everything that thenastronauts were saying, though.) The guys on the ground were gettingnfrustrated – the CAPCOM had tried to reach the astronauts at leastn40 times without a reply – and they really wanted to get thenastronauts safely in before the sun disappeared behind the Earth.nFinally McDivitt did the Push-to-Talk thing and found out thatnMission Control really wanted White back in the spaceship. Whitenasked to take a few more pictures, but McDivitt coaxed him to comenback immediately. Since his zip gun no longer worked, McDivitt pullednhimself back to the hatch using the 8-meter tether. n

nHerenis the most dangerous part of the EVA – the hatch wouldn’t re-latchnagain. If they couldn’t solve the problem, both men would have diednas the Gemini capsule returned to Earth. Once again, McDivitt had tonfiddle and twiddle, and he was finally able to help White securelynclose the hatch.

White had spent about 23 minutes out innspace. When he had to come back in, he said, “It’s the saddest moment of my life.”

nHerenis a great National Geographic video aboutnspacewalks!

nAlsonon this date: