Gemini 4
Gemini 4 — Ed White made the first American spacewalk on 3 June 1965, floating outside the capsule for about twenty minutes on a gold-plated tether.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- NASA
- Launched
- June 3, 1965
- Status
- Completed
Trajectory
- Distance from the Sun
- 1.01 AU
- Distance from Earth
- 387,570 km
- Distance from Venus
- 0.646 AU
Mission
Gemini 4 gave America its first spacewalk and its first taste of long-duration spaceflight. Launched on 3 June 1965, James McDivitt and Ed White flew a four-day mission at a time when the United States was racing to close a Soviet lead — Alexei Leonov had made the world's first spacewalk just eleven weeks earlier. Near the start of the flight, White opened his hatch and floated out into the void, drifting at the end of a gold-wrapped tether and nudging himself with a hand-held gas gun. For about twenty minutes he tumbled and glided above the blue Earth, so exhilarated that when ordered back inside he called it 'the saddest moment of my life'. The rest of the mission tested whether crew and spacecraft could endure four days in orbit — a necessary step toward the eight days a lunar voyage would demand — and gathered medical data on weightlessness. Gemini 4 showed that an astronaut could leave the spacecraft, work in the void and survive, the capability every Moon landing would later require.
- 1965Gemini 4 launchesLaunch
McDivitt and White begin a four-day endurance flight.
- 1965The first American spacewalkSpacewalk / EVA
Ed White floats outside on a tether for about 20 minutes, calling it 'the saddest moment of my life' when ordered back in.
- 1965SplashdownMission end
Four days in orbit — a step toward the duration a Moon voyage will demand.
Images
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