While in orbit 170 miles above Earth, Navy Captain Bruce McCandless
II became the first human being to perform an untethered spacewalk, when he exits the U.S. space shuttle Challenger and maneuvers
freely, using a bulky white jet pack of his own design.
McCandless orbited Earth in tangent with the shuttle at speeds
greater than 17,500 miles per hour—the speed at which satellites normally orbit Earth—and flew up to 320 feet away from the
Challenger. After an hour and a half of testing and flying the jet-
powered backpack and admiring Earth, McCandless safely
reentered the shuttle.
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Bruce McCandless II (Byron Willis McCandless)
(June 8, 1937 – December 21, 2017)
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