While accompanying Gus Grissom on the Gemini 4 mission, on 3 June 1965 he became the first US astronaut to undertake a space walk. On 27 January 1967 at Cape Kennedy, White, Grissom, and Commander Roger Chaffee of the US Navy were killed in a flash fire that swept their capsule during training for the first mission of the Apollo project.
White was born in San Antonio, Texas, educated at the US Military Academy, and joined the US Air Force in 1952. He was the second person to walk in space, the first being the Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov on 18 March 1965.
Edward White, attached to his Gemini spacecraft by a 7.6-m umbilical line and tether, floats freely in space—the first US astronaut to do so. In his left hand is the hand-held manoeuvring unit (HHSMU) with which he propelled himself.
Credit: NASA
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