On June 3, 1965, 120 miles above the Earth, Major Edward H.
White II opened 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. 

White had been preceded by Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei A.
Leonov, who on March 18, 1965, was the first man ever to 
walk in space.

     
     
     
     
   
Edward Higgins White II 
(November 14, 1930 – January 27, 1967            

    

On May 5, 1961, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr.
was launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space
capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to travel
into space. 

The suborbital flight, which lasted 15 minutes and reached
a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere, was a major triumph 
for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The view from Freedom 7.

On April 8, 1993, the space shuttle Discovery lifted off from
the Kennedy Space Center. On board was astronaut Ellen
Ochoa, soon to become the first Hispanic woman in space.

Ochoa started at NASA in 1988 after receiving a doctorate
in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Two
years later, she was selected as an astronaut.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, who
commanded a dress rehearsal flight for the 1969 moon
landing and the first U.S.-Soviet space linkup, died Monday
in a hospital near his Space Coast Florida home.

Stafford, a retired Air Force three-star general, took part in
four space missions. Before Apollo 10, he flew on two Gemini
flights, including the first rendezvous of two U.S. capsules in
orbit.

Stafford was one of 24 NASA astronauts who flew to the moon,
but he did not land on it. Only seven of them are still alive.

ASTRONAUT THOMAS P. STAFFORD DURING GEMINI 9 MISSION.