At NASA, without a doubt, it has given away epic moments that will remain forever stored in the memory of millions of citizens throughout the world.
For sure, the best known feat is that of Neil Armstrong, who in 1969 took “one small step for man, but a great leap for humanity” by becoming the first human being to set foot on the Moon; However, although memorable, glorious and unforgettable, this is not the only space feat that is attributed to the US agency.
Fragile, tiny and, apparently, vulnerable before the immensity of the cosmos, Bruce McCandless II made history when, on February 7, 1984, he managed to obtain the honorable title of being the first human being to float without tethers. through outer space.
Perhaps, to some, his name is barely familiar; however, for aerospace history Bruce McCandless II is synonymous with glory, bravery and, of course, heroism.
(Also read: The last curse of a cosmonaut before burning and falling to Earth).
This photo gives me chills.
The astronaut without cables or anything to hold him down, is Bruce McCandless II, the first to do the crazy thing of staying alone floating in space with the Manned Maneuvering Unit as the only way to stay alive.
Pic by @NASA pic.twitter.com/bToLAua9iI— Uriel De Simoni ✍???? (@Urieldesimoni) July 1, 2022
“It was a wonderful feeling, a mixture of personal euphoria and professional pride: it had taken me many years to get to that point. Several people were skeptical that it would work, and with 300 hours of flight practice, I was overtrained.”, were the words with which the now famous astronaut described that experience that, among other things, marked a before and following in space exploration.
The history of space navigation is also the story of Bruce McCandless II, who broke all the limits of physics, gravity and science to star in a photo that perhaps more than one has hanging on the wall of his room.
An epic space walk
An untethered astronaut masterfully floating through outer space? Photography, at first glance, might only be described with one word: surrealism.
Fortunately for the history of NASA’s space program and McCandless’s successors, this was not a photomontage, much less a government fabrication: far from the safety of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce moved alone across the planet. dark void of the cosmos approximately 273 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.
(Keep reading: Woman fell in love with ‘astronaut’ and paid him rocket to return to Earth).
Astronaut Bruce McCandless II would be 83 years old today. The man who wowed everyone’s heart in 1984 by flying away hundreds of meters wirelessly with the nitrogen-powered MMU during his spacewalk. pic.twitter.com/3oidhN84I6
— ✍️ Leonardo D’Anchiano (@HdAnchiano) June 9, 2020
Once he successfully floated through space, he did not miss the opportunity to recreate one of the most iconic phrases of his predecessor, Neil Armstrong.
“My wife was at mission control and there was quite a bit of apprehension. She wanted to say something similar to Neil (Armstrong) when she landed on the moon, so I said: ‘It may have been a small step for Neil, but it’s a giant leap for me’. That loosened the tension a bit,” McCandless wrote in 2015, according to the Spanish newspaper ‘La Vanguardia’.
Without the help of the Manned Maneuvering Unit – known as UMT, a propelled backpack that allows open-air flight – the epic scene might have been implausible, if not impossible; however, thanks to high-pressure jets of nitrogen from the propulsion unit, what might have seemed like a myth before became a reality during mission 41-B.
An astronaut floats alone with the Earth under his feet. There is nothing around you.
In 1984, during the first of his two space shuttle missions, Bruce McCandless II made the first untethered free flight using the Manned Maneuvering Unit. pic.twitter.com/qzYCMPGhWJ
– Mar Gomez (@MarGomezH) February 16, 2021
Bruce’s untethered flight was described by the American newspaper ‘The New York Times’ as quite a “show of courage and beauty” and it was not for less: Bruce McCandless ventured further from the confines and safety of his ship than no previous astronaut had ever done so to help launch and deploy two communications satellites.
Far from being another NASA mission, the photo of Bruce exploring outer space has become an icon of the fieldso much so that it has transcended years, generations and countries.
(Of interest: The unusual end of the first Latin American animals to go into space).
“I guess it’s fair to say that I’ve been surprised by how many people have come up to me and say, ‘Hey, I have your picture in my room.’ It has become an icon of the space program and, in some way, seems to represent the embodiment of humanity’s desire to free itself from gravity and be able to fly through the cosmos”, Bruce told, on one occasion, for ‘National Geographic ‘.
How does it feel to float untethered in space?
Who better to answer what it feels like to float untethered in space than the first human being to do so? Although Bruce McCandless died in 2017, at the age of 80, he did not take the secret to his grave.
Finding himself adrift, with nothing more than his suit and a nitrogen-propelled backpack, are factors that might have emerged as Bruce’s latent concerns during his space journey; however, more than the possibility of being able to find death during the mission, what really worried the astronaut was the untimely and voracious cold that sheltered him.
(Can read: How would an astronaut die if he took off his suit while in space?).
“The only thing that worried me was that when I walked away from the shuttle, I was suddenly very cold.. I was shaking, my teeth were chattering. The reason is that the H position, or hot (hot), of the life support system is not really hot, “he said in dialogue with ‘National Geographic’.
The truth is that I thought it would be ethereal, in terms of silence, but I was wrong. I had radio communications and there were three people talking to me. It wasn’t exactly peaceful and quiet
Contrary to what many might think, being hundreds of kilometers above the Earth’s surface is not as serene, peaceful and undisturbed an experience as it seems; Quite the contrary, between radio messages and traces of terrestrial communication, serenity is, perhaps, the last thing that is experienced.
(You may be interested in: The cosmonaut who was stranded in space following the fall of the USSR).
“The truth is that I thought it would be ethereal, in terms of silence, but I was wrong. I had radio communications and there were three people talking to me. It wasn’t exactly peaceful and quiet,” McCandless II added in the aforementioned interview. Of course, although chaotic, the experience is still fun.
How many people wouldn’t be curious to look, even just a little bit, at the mighty planet Earth that sits below their floating feet? Although this question may be very popular with most astronauts, Bruce did not want to know for sure the answer from him.
In fact, the astronaut recounted that, during the mission carried out in 1984, he avoided looking down, since his point of reference was the space shuttle Challenger, through which he was oriented as if it were an airplane flying in formation with another.
With his heroic feat, this feat of aerospace not only changed the future of astronauts forever, but also changed, like many other colleagues, their perspective of planet Earth and this is what he commented in dialogue with ‘National Geographic’: “I think I can safely say that the perception of almost anyone who has flown into space and seen Earth has changed. The prevailing feeling seems to be that when we look down from space, we can’t see the political subdivisions and we wonder why we can’t learn to work together to get ahead”.
Bruce McCandless: an astronaut at all times
Although Bruce McCandless is known mainly for the space mission that, among other things, left a photo that went around the world due to its unusualness, his vocation goes much further: he was an astronaut and a full-fledged United States citizen. to give.
(Also: The last wish of cosmonauts found dead in their ship upon returning to Earth).
Not only did he star in a successful space mission that reached the ears of citizens, experts and colleagues across the globe, but he served as mission control communicator for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moon walk on the Apollo 11 mission, to later become part of the support team for the Apollo 14 mission -between January and February 1971-. On top of that, he helped design the jetpack that helped him float in space.
Born in Boston, United States, he went to high school in Long Beach, California, and later graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he was a classmate of former Senator John McCain.
“Bruce served his country with humility and dignity, and encouraged us all to reach new heights,” McCain said following Bruce’s death in 2017, according to ‘The Guardian’.
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