Gemini IV: America's First Spacewalk

On June 3, 1965, Ed White opened a hatch 100 miles above the Earth and stepped outside.
The photographs from the next twenty minutes are still some of the most beautiful ever taken in space.

OUT THE DOOR

Tethered by a gold-wrapped umbilical and holding a small hand-held maneuvering gun, White floated free of the Gemini IV spacecraft while commander Jim McDivitt photographed him against the blue of the Pacific.

The Soviets had performed the first spacewalk months earlier — but no one had pictures like these.

TWENTY-THREE MINUTES

White's maneuvering gun ran out of propellant quickly, leaving him to tumble gently at the end of his tether — and he loved every second.

When Mission Control finally ordered him back inside, he called it the saddest moment of his life.

THE HATCH

The drama wasn't over: the hatch mechanism balked when it was time to close it, forcing White and McDivitt to wrestle it shut in bulky pressure suits.

It was an early lesson in a truth every spacewalker since has learned — in space, the simple things are never simple.

THE PHOTOGRAPHS

McDivitt's photos of White — visor gold, Earth below, umbilical curling — became instant icons.

A decade before anyone said 'overview effect,' these images showed the world what it looked like to be a human being alone above the Earth.

TWENTY-THREE MINUTES OUTSIDE — AND THE VIEW HAS NEVER BEEN THE SAME SINCE.