![]() According to Barton Hacker and James Grimwood, writing in On the Shoulders of Titans in 1977, the astronauts’ role in the decision-making process “went far beyond that of the normal test pilot in determining what was to be done and when”. It has been remarked that, without McDivitt and White’s tenacity, the ‘G4C’ extravehicular suit might otherwise have been too far down the line to have been ready for Gemini IV. When the Gemini mission simulator became available in Houston in November 1964, the pair began actively lobbying for an EVA on their mission. “It seems that every time we got together we were taking examinations of some kind.” The ‘exam’ on Gemini IV would be their most difficult and challenging so far. “Jim and I have been following right along together,” White once said. In September 1962, both were chosen as members of NASA’s second astronaut class. ![]() ![]() Barely a year separated White and McDivitt in age, both were married to women named Pat, both earned aeronautical engineering degrees from the same institution and in the same year, both completed test pilot training at Edwards Air Force Base in California and both had secured approximately the same amount (around 2,000 hours) of jet experience. The two men destined to make history shared close parallels. Aboard the NASA Motor Vessel Retriever in the Gulf of Mexico, in April 1965, Jim McDivitt adjusts Ed White's suit before a water egress training exercise. With the approval of Webb and Dryden, it turned from possible into positive…and it would not be a simple case of Ed White standing on his seat to poke his helmeted head into space he would physically leave Gemini IV and manoeuvre himself around outside. By this time, NASA had referred to a “possible extravehicular activity” in its Gemini IV press kit, released on 21 May. At length, Webb asked Seamans to produce a report on why an EVA was necessary and on 25 May – with nine days remaining before the flight – Dryden scribbled his signature of approval on it. George Mueller, the head of manned spaceflight, doubted that the EVA hardware could be ready in time for an early June launch, whilst Dryden was worried that the spacewalk might be seen as a knee-jerk reaction to Leonov’s achievement. Efforts gathered pace in the wake of Alexei Leonov’s triumph and in mid-May 1965 Bob Gilruth, head of the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, received approval to proceed from NASA’s top managers, including Bob Seamans, Hugh Dryden and Administrator Jim Webb. When Gemini sailed through altitude chamber tests in November, the likelihood of an EVA brightened significantly. Throughout the year, the situation steadily improved, with AiResearch building an astronaut’s chest-mounted control pack, the David Clark Company making the space suit and McDonnell modifying its Gemini spacecraft to accommodate an EVA. Yet it would take several months, and no small amount of lobbying by the astronauts, before such plans bore fruit.Īs early as January 1964, NASA had flagged Gemini IV as the earliest possible mission on which to perform some kind of ‘extravehicular activity’, although at the time the availability of the required life-support equipment was uncertain. When their names were announced in July 1964, Gemini Deputy Manager Kenneth Kleinknecht mentioned that one of them might perform a ‘stand-up EVA’, by opening the hatch and poking his head into the void of space. McDivitt and White’s voyage is a case of being in the right place at the right time. Neither accomplishment was a true ‘first’, for the Soviets had already done both, but for a relieved America the mission offered tangible proof that the lunar goal was in sight. Aboard Gemini IV, astronauts Jim McDivitt and Ed White spent four days in orbit – longer than any previous American crew – and supported their nation’s first ‘spacewalk’. Photo Credit: NASAįorty-seven years ago, this week, the United States took a huge step forward in its drive to land a man on the Moon. The Gemini IV spacecraft and his snake-like tether can be seen reflected in his gold-tinted visor. Clasping the hand-held manoeuvring unit, Ed White tumbles through space during America's first EVA on 3 June 1965.
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