No matter which Astronaut or Cosmonaut you selected as your answer, every one of them has walked in space – but only one of them was the first. Here’s the correct answer and the details on each choice.
Dave meets Alexei Leonov
Alexei Leonov – The first person to walk in space. Soviets were indeed the first to walk in space. On March 18, 1965, Alexei Leonov left his Voskhod 2 spacecraft three months before Ed White became the first American to walk in space.
The photo on left was taken the day I met Leonov and I got to speak with him briefly about that spacewalk.
Bruce McCandless-EVA
Bruce McCandless was not the first man to walk in space, but he was the first man to orbit untethered in space.
The picture on the left shows him operating the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), orbiting the Earth by himself on February 7, 1984 during STS-41-B (Challenger flight).
McCandless was CapCom (Capsule Communicator) when Neil Armstrong took his “one small step” onto the lunar surface during Apollo 11.
Alan Shepard was the first American to fly into space, and he was the 5th man to walk on the Moon (also considered an Extra Vehicular Activity, or spacewalk). He was also the first man to play golf on the Moon. But Shepard was not the first man to walk in space.
Ed White's Flown Mustard Seed
Ed White was certainly the first American to walk in space on his Gemini 4 mission, but he walked in space on June 3, 1965 — just three months after Alexei Leonov became the first person to walk in space.
The photo on the left is of Ed White in a presentation called the “Flown Mustard Seed.” Attached to this item is a single mustard seed that was carried into space by Ed White during his faith-building spacewalk. This item is the subject of the 7th of the Seven Forgotten Leadership Lessons of the Space Race – Management.
Ed White died on January 27 1967 at Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 34 (see “About this Header Photo,” the photo at the header of this blog) in the tragic Apollo 1 fire, which also took the lives of Astronauts Roger Chaffee and Gus Grissom.
Aldrin during Gemini 12 - "Mastering EVA"
Buzz Aldrin was not the first man to walk in space, either. But he made tremendous strides in mastering EVA and led the way in the methods that we use in working in space.
The photo on left was taken during Aldrin’s Gemini 12 flight with Jim Lovell, where he was “Mastering EVA.” Buzz also walked on the Moon during Apollo 11.
“Learning is remembering” –Socrates
That is why we collect space memorabilia… to remember and learn.
–Dave
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