Ed White made the first American spacewalk on June 3, 1965

Ed White became the first American to walk in space on June 3, 1965, spending about 21 minutes outside Gemini IV, attached by a 25-foot umbilical and a 23-foot tether wrapped together in gold tape.

He was the second person to leave a spacecraft in orbit. Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov had done it less than three months earlier. White’s own first is narrower and often missed: he was the first to steer himself with jet propulsion, using a Hand-Held Self-Maneuvering Unit, a small gun that squirted pressurized oxygen through three nozzles.

NASA had not originally meant White to leave the capsule. The early plan had him stand up in his seat and lean out of the open hatch. Leonov’s successful spacewalk in March 1965 changed that, and the full excursion went ahead on Gemini IV, with commander James McDivitt photographing him through the hatch window.

Circling Earth at about 17,000 mph, White covered roughly 6,500 miles during the walk. Not everything stayed with the spacecraft: while the hatch was open, a comfort glove floated out and was lost in space.

White had to be told several times to come back. “I’m not coming in… This is fun,” he said. When he finally climbed back in, he said, “This is the saddest moment of my life.”

White was later named to the crew of the first crewed Apollo flight. On January 27, 1967, White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee died when fire swept their command module during a launch pad test, less than two years after his spacewalk.