On June 3, 1965, 120 miles above the Earth, Major Edward H. White
II opened the hatch of the Gemini 4 and stepped out of the capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to walk in space (above). He
was 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.

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

White died on January 27, 1967, alongside astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Roger B. Chaffee in a fire during pre-launch testing
for Apollo 1 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. He was awarded the
NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his flight in Gemini 4
and posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of
Honor

SANDY KOZEL

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into low Earth orbit in
1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope,
but it is one of the largest and most versatile, renowned both as a
vital research tool and as a public relations boon for astronomy.

The Hubble telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble
(below) and is one of NASA’s Great Observatories.

Edwin Powell Hubble
(November 20, 1889 – September 28, 1953)

Mercury Seven or Original Seven, they are (front row, left to right)
Walter M. “Wally” Schirra Jr., Donald K. “Deke” Slayton, John H.
Glenn Jr., M. Scott Carpenter, (back row) Alan B. Shepard Jr.,
Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom and L. Gordon Cooper, Jr.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
introduced America’s first astronauts to the press: The men
(above), all military test pilots, were carefully selected from
a group of 32 candidates to  take part in Project Mercury,
America’s first manned space program. NASA planned to
begin manned orbital flights in 1961. 

From Cape Canaveral, Florida, John Herschel Glenn Jr (above).
was successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7
spacecraft (above) on the first orbital flight by an American
astronaut. 

Glenn, a decorated lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps,
was among the seven men chosen by the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) in 1959 to become the first
American astronauts.

SANDY KOZEL

The Space Shuttle Challenger crew members gathered for an official portrait on November 11, 1985.