First untethered spacewalk seen in iconic photos ahead of 40th anniversary

03 February 2024 , 21:50

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Brave Bruce McCandless II soaring through space - without a tether. (Image: NASA)

Stunning photos from NASA ’s first untethered spacewal k have been released - as the agency prepares to celebrate the daring mission’s 40th anniversary.

Brave astronaut Bruce McCandless II was pictured floating in space with only a jetpack to propel him after he had stepped out of his shuttle Challenger on February 7, 1984. Previous spacewalks had been completed using fastening, which ensured that those performing work on the ships were not unable to glide away.

And McCandless remembered trying to ease the tension for both his fearful wife and those in Mission Control by echoing Neil Armstrong’s first words when he stepped onto the moon. He said at the time: “It may have been one small step for Neil, but it’s a heck of a big leap for me.”

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Stunning images capture the awe-inspiring mission (NASA)

The incredible shot of him floating alone was taken by ‘Hoot’ Gibson, the flight’s pilot. Thinking back to that moment, Gibson remembered he was the only one on the crew who “had absolutely nothing to do” as McCandless made his perilous trip out into space.

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So he picked up a Hasselblad camera and began documenting the events. And when he first looked through the camera’s viewfinder, he could not believe how incredible it was to see McCandless untethered, floating above the Earth.

Bruce McCandless II performing work on his Challenger craft (NASA)

For each photograph, he took three light meter readings and checked the focus four times. In the crew’s photography training, he learned that an off-kilter horizon looked wrong and was not pleasing to the eye. And that presented a slight problem because Challenger was at a 28.5-degree inclination. So he “tilted the camera to put the horizon level in the pictures.”

The result was one of NASA’s most iconic and requested images. McCandless called the photograph “beautiful, partly because the sun is shining directly on me.” His son Bruce McCandless III said his father “appears to be glowing.” Because the sun was in his eyes, he closed the helmet visor, which made it difficult to identify who exactly was inside the spacesuit.

The team of the space shuttle Challenger (NASA)

McCandless later said about the image of him: “My anonymity means people can imagine themselves doing the same thing. At visitor centres [sic], they often have life-sized cardboard versions with the visor cut out, so people can peep through.”

Perhaps more importantly, as expressed by United States Senator John McCain, the photo “inspired generations of Americans to believe that there is no limit to the human potential.” A second less well-known photo featured McCandless on the Manipulator Foot Restraint or “cherry picker” device at the end of the Remote Manipulator System (RMS).

The space shuttle Challenger as seen from Bruce McCandless II vantage point (NASA)

A third image, taken by a fixed camera on McCandless’s helmet, captured Challenger in its entirety, which included the payload bay with the Shuttle Pallet Satellite and a glimpse of astronaut Robert Stewart standing just beneath the spacecraft’s RMS.

Douglas Whitbread