April and May just blew by! I haven’t had time to post here because of work, prepping to have a baby, and gearing up for the Skylab 50th celebrations at the Cosmosphere. It’s been a wild time. Here’s a quick post to celebrate Ed White’s historic spacewalk. Be sure to watch the podcast feed for an episode later today.
“You smeared up my windshield, you dirty dog.”
Command Pilot Jim McDivitt and Pilot Ed White were lifted into orbit atop a Titan II GLV from Launch Complex 19 on June 3, 1965. Gemini IV was NASA’s first multi-day mission and was meant to show how humans could function in weightlessness for extended periods.
The two primary objectives for this mission were crucial to proving that astronauts could fly future Apollo missions.
The first was to attempt a rendezvous with the second stage of the Titan. Unfortunately, many things were working against the astronauts for their rendezvous, from a lack of proper lighting on the second stage to no radar for range finding to an incomplete understanding of the math behind making an orbital rendezvous work. The crew decided to move on to the next part of the mission, White’s spacewalk and test of a handheld maneuvering unit.
Ed White became the first American astronaut to perform an Extravehicular activity or EVA after exiting the Gemini capsule a few hours into their multi-day mission.
“You smeared up my windshield, you dirty dog.”- McDivitt, laughing as he jokingly chastised Ed White.
“Yep.”- White
White is pictured here as he floated outside the Gemini IV spacecraft. Capcom Gus Grissom’s interactions with McDivitt and White were fun to listen to. Watch out for a podcast episode later today with the audio.
Just as soon as the EVA began, it was time for White to come back inside the spacecraft. White had described the incredible views; seeing Earth, the Sun, and the sensation of floating free must have been fantastic.
White’s reaction to having to come back inside the spacecraft was that “It’s the saddest moment of my life.”
After proving that an EVA was possible, McDivitt and White conducted numerous experiments in space, from radiation measurements to exercising with a bungee cord throughout the flight. The astronauts also took sextant measurements to prove that navigation in space was possible. Finally, on June 7, 1965, the spacecraft reentered Earth’s atmosphere for a splashdown 360 miles east of the Cape. The USS Wasp recovered the crew and their spacecraft a short time later.
Picture- NASA
Quotes- NASA/JSC