Posts tagged eva
Stepping Out in Space — NASA’s First EVA
On the afternoon of June 3, 1965, Ed White stood up on his seat and stuck his head out of Gemini 4’s open hatch into space. He was in orbit with commander Jim McDivitt, and both were men waiting for a “go” from Houston to begin America’s first spacewalk.
White knew he would be facing some difficulties on the spacewalk, properly called “extravehicular activity,” or EVA. He’d already mounted a video camera on the spacecraft’s body just above the hatch, and it was more work than he’d anticipated.
The ordinarily simple task demanded enough physical exertion that he worked up a sweat and starting breathing pretty heavily. Listening on the communications line, McDivitt warned White to take it easy. It was the first time during the mission that White’s heart rate sped up enough to catch the attention of flight surgeons in mission control.
