McDivitt led the first US space travel mission.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, WASHINGTON – Former United States Air Force and Space (NASA) astronaut James McDivitt has died at the age of 93. He was the one who led the first mission to the United States (USA) in space before leading the first test flight of a lunar lander Apollo in the Earth’s orbit.
NASA’s historical bureau recorded McDivitt’s death Thursday in a post on its social media channels. “It is with heavy hearts that we mourn the recent passing of Korean War veteran, former NASA test pilot, flight engineer and astronaut Jim McDivitt,” the statement read.
“Rest in peace.”
McDivitt joined NASA in 1962 as a member of the second group of astronauts. Dubbed “The Next Nine” because they followed the “Original Seven” chosen in 1959, McDivitt’s classmates included Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell and Ed White. McDivitt and White knew each other in college, had attended test pilot school together, and were soon called the Gemini 4 crew.
The day was recognized as the first American mission to carry out an extravehicular activity (EVA, or spacewalk), plans for Gemini 4 did not begin with an exit.
“Flight was originally created to be a long-running medical-aviation experiment,” McDivitt said during a NASA oral history interview in 1999.
“We have never had a flight longer than (34) hours and no Russian flight until then has been very long, so there is a lot of medical experimentation in it – tests and all sorts of other junk. And then some scientific experiments. But mostly it’s four days, whether we’ll make it or not. “
As the talk of space travel increased, the original idea was that White would open the hatch and stick his head out when McDivitt held him back. Then, on March 18, 1965, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov stepped off the Voskhod 2 spacecraft and stayed out for 12 minutes and 9 seconds, claiming the title of being the world’s first space explorer.
Late in the space race with the Soviets, NASA officially added a full EVA to Gemini 4. The decision required several changes to be made, including one to account for McDivitt’s status.
“I came out of a very high seat height, 99th percentile or something. So when we suddenly had to close the hatch under pressure, we had to redesign the seat,” he said.
