During NASA's Gemini 4 mission, astronaut Edward White II opened the spacecraft hatch and propelled himself into open space using a hand-held maneuvering gun, becoming the first American to conduct a spacewalk. He spent 23 minutes outside the capsule, connected only by a 25-foot tether, before struggling to re-enter through the cramped hatch.
White's excursion came just three months after Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov had performed the world's first spacewalk, and NASA was eager to close the gap in the space race. Floating above the Pacific Ocean at roughly 17,500 miles per hour, White used a small gas-powered gun to maneuver himself, later losing the propellant and simply pulling on his tether to move.
He reportedly called it 'the saddest moment' of his life when mission command ordered him back inside—reentry proved far harder than exit, as the stiff pressurized suit and lack of handholds made closing and locking the hatch a genuine struggle in the cramped two-man capsule. Commander Jim McDivitt had to help talk him through it.
White's spacewalk photographs, showing him silhouetted against the blue curve of Earth, became iconic images of the 1960s space program. Tragically, White would die less than two years later in the Apollo 1 launch pad fire of January 1967, alongside Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee.
Key people: Ed White, James McDivitt