On June 3, 1965, NASA astronaut Ed White became the first American to exit a spacecraft in orbit.
“This is the greatest experience, it’s just tremendous,” White said as he floated outside the Gemini 4 spacecraft on that historic day.
To mark the 60th anniversary since the first U.S. spacewalk, we’ve compiled a collection of 10 awesome images captured during the first-ever U.S walk, as well as subsequent walks that have taken place over the years.
1. First up, Ed White during his historic spacewalk on June 3, 1965. For his safety, the record-setting astronaut was secured to the spacecraft by a 25-foot umbilical line and tether during his 20-minute adventure.
2. NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski appears to wave to the camera while attached to a foot restraint at the end of the Space Shuttle’s Orbiter Boom Sensor System during a spacewalk in 2007.
3. NASA’s John B. Herrington, seen at the far left of the image, during a walk outside the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2002.
4. NASA astronaut Suni Williams pictured secured to the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm, with the orbital facility’s solar arrays behind her during a walk in 2025.
5. With a dramatic cloudy backdrop, astronaut Robert L. Curbeam, Jr. can be seen during a spacewalk at the space station in 2006.
6. Bruce McCandless II is seen approaching his maximum distance from the Space Shuttle Challenger in an extraordinary spacewalk in 1984 that saw him become the first astronaut to maneuver in space untethered. McCandles was trialing a nitrogen-propelled, hand-controlled backpack device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit.
7. Reid Wiseman takes part in a 2014 spacewalk at the space station some 250 miles above Earth. During the 6-hour, 13-minute spacewalk, Wiseman and ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst worked outside the station’s Quest airlock, relocating a failed cooling pump to external stowage and installing gear that provides back up power to external robotics equipment.
8. NASA’s Christina Koch snaps a “space selfie” with Earth behind her. She and fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir worked outside the ISS for more than seven hours during the first-ever all-woman spacewalk in 2019.
9. American astronaut Dale A. Gardner gets up close and personal with the spinning WESTAR VI satellite during a mission in 1984. Gardner used a special device to stabilize the communications spacecraft sufficiently so that it could be captured and placed in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery for return to Earth.
10. Astronauts Carl Meade and Mark Lee during a spacewalk in 1994. Lee can be seen attached to the Space Shuttle’s robotic arm.
