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Speaker 1: The Stay in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that explores the past one day at a time.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gay Bluesier, and in this episode, we're talking about

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Speaker 1: the first time a human floated freely in space without

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Speaker 1: any connection to a ship, the Earth, or anything else.

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Speaker 1: The day was February seven. Astronauts Bruce McCandless the second

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Speaker 1: and Robert Lee Stewart became the first humans to walk

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Speaker 1: untethered in space. They did so through the use of

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Speaker 1: a new piece of equipment known as the Manned Maneuvering

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Speaker 1: Unit or mm you. McCandless was the first to test

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Speaker 1: the device while doing repair exercises outside the Challenger Space Shuttle.

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Speaker 1: Later that day, Stewart suited up as well and tried

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Speaker 1: it for himself during a separate spacewalk. The mm use

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Speaker 1: were essentially bulky white jet packs propelled by nitrogen thrusters.

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Speaker 1: They granted astronauts far greater mobility than the cumbersome tethers

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Speaker 1: used by earlier spacewalkers, but there was a trade off. Namely,

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Speaker 1: there were no lifelines connecting them to a spacecraft. If

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Speaker 1: the astronauts strayed too far from the shuttle, or if

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Speaker 1: their mm USE malfunctioned, they may not have been able

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Speaker 1: to get back inside before their air reserves ran out.

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Speaker 1: The historic spacewalks were conducted during STS forty one B,

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Speaker 1: which was the tenth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the

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Speaker 1: fourth flight of the Challenger Space Shuttle. It had launched

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Speaker 1: on February third from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida

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Speaker 1: on a mission to deploy two communications satellites. The mm

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Speaker 1: U trials took place on the fourth day of the mission.

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Speaker 1: If the equipment performed well, NASA plan to use it

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Speaker 1: in future operations to repair and service orbiting satellites and

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Speaker 1: space stations. The Challenger crew for the mission consisted of

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Speaker 1: five astronauts, Commander Vance Brand, pilot Robert Gibson, and mission

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Speaker 1: specialists Ronald McNair, Robert Stewart, and Bruce McCandless. The second

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Speaker 1: It was the first spaceflight for all the crew members

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Speaker 1: except Commander Brand, for whom it was his third. McCandless

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Speaker 1: was chosen to be the first to test the mm YOU,

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Speaker 1: having helped design the device alongside NASA engineer Charles wit Set.

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Speaker 1: The final design resembled a modified space suit and weighed

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Speaker 1: about three hundred pounds. It was powered by twenty four

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Speaker 1: small thrusters, which could be aimed in different directions through

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Speaker 1: the use of two motion controlled handles attached to a

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Speaker 1: pair of built in armrests. Commander brand later described the

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Speaker 1: design in layman's terms, saying, quote, it was supposed to

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Speaker 1: be in early day Buck Rogers flying belt, if you

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Speaker 1: know what I mean, except it didn't have the person

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Speaker 1: zooming real fast. It was a huge device on your

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Speaker 1: back that was very well designed and redundant so that

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Speaker 1: it was very safe. But it moved along at about

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Speaker 1: one or two or three miles per hour. It used

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Speaker 1: cold nitrogen gas coming out in spurts to thrust you around.

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Speaker 1: Prior to the mission, McCandless had tested the MMU underwater

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Speaker 1: and inside the sky Lab space station. Finally, on February seven,

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Speaker 1: he was ready for the real thing. While in orbit

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Speaker 1: a hundred and seventy miles above the Earth, McCandless exited

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Speaker 1: the Challenger and spent the next hour and a half

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Speaker 1: flying through space, venturing as far as a hundred yards

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Speaker 1: from the Shuttle. Although the mission was his first spaceflight,

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Speaker 1: McCandless had already had a long and eventful career in

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Speaker 1: NASA's space program. In fact, he had been the mission

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Speaker 1: control communicator during the historic Apollo eleven moon landing of

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine. He later admitted to being irritated that

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Speaker 1: Neil Armstrong hadn't told him ahead of time what he

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Speaker 1: planned to say while stepping onto the moon. McCandless wound

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Speaker 1: up poking fun at the incident during his famous spacewalk,

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Speaker 1: His first words after exiting the shuttle were quote, it

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Speaker 1: may have been a small step for Neil, but it's

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Speaker 1: a heck of a big leap for me. In one

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Speaker 1: of his final interviews before his death in seventeen, McCandless

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Speaker 1: told National Geographic quote, I think I can assert that

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Speaker 1: my comment was a consciously thought out be a form

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Speaker 1: of revenge for Neil not sharing his thoughts on stepping

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Speaker 1: on the moon with me, and see a way to

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Speaker 1: say that things are going okay, don't worry about it.

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Speaker 1: It's set the right tone, and on we went. Those

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Speaker 1: listening in at mission control, including McCandless's wife, had been

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Speaker 1: tense for good reason. The crew members inside the shuttle

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Speaker 1: were try packing his movements with the Shuttle's radar to

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Speaker 1: make sure he stayed within a safe range. But if

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Speaker 1: something went wrong and he had begun to pull away

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Speaker 1: from the spacecraft, there are options to help would have

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Speaker 1: been pretty limited. Thankfully, the mm us performed flawlessly throughout

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Speaker 1: the mission, and neither McCandless nor Robert Stewart had to

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Speaker 1: be rescued. If anything, McCandless was more annoyed with the

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Speaker 1: constant radio chatter of the concerned crew than he was

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Speaker 1: worried about his own safety. After the mission, he remarked, quote,

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Speaker 1: I was grossly overtrained. I was just anxious to get

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Speaker 1: out there and fly. I felt very comfortable. It got

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Speaker 1: so cold my teeth were chattering and I was shivering,

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Speaker 1: but that was a very minor thing. I'd been told

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Speaker 1: of the quiet vacuum you experienced in space, but with

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Speaker 1: three radio links saying how's your oxygen holding out, stay

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Speaker 1: away from the engines, and where's my turn, it wasn't

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Speaker 1: that peaceful. A few hours later, fellow astronaut Roberts Stu

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Speaker 1: tried out the same MMU that mccandles first used. Then

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Speaker 1: two days later both of them had similar success testing

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Speaker 1: a different unit. By February eleven, the STS forty one

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Speaker 1: B mission was complete and the Challenger and its crew

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Speaker 1: were able to safely return to the Kennedy Space Center.

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Speaker 1: The manned Maneuvering unit had proven effective for spacewalks, but

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Speaker 1: it wound up being deployed just two more times later

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Speaker 1: that same year. It was flown for only six hours

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Speaker 1: and twenty nine minutes in total before being retired from

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Speaker 1: active use for good. In the end, a safety review

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Speaker 1: determined that the MMU was too dangerous, especially since tethered

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Speaker 1: astronauts or manipulator arms could perform the same tasks. The

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Speaker 1: devices increased mobility was a clear advantage, but it wasn't

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Speaker 1: worth the risk to the crew. Free floating astronauts maybe

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Speaker 1: a thing of the past, but we do at least

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Speaker 1: have a great souvenir to remember them by. D R

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Speaker 1: McCandless's inaugural spacewalk. Shuttle pilot Robert Gibson captured some breathtaking

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Speaker 1: photos of the event, including one of the most iconic

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Speaker 1: images in the history of the U S space program.

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Speaker 1: It shows McCandless and the MMU suspended above our brilliant

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Speaker 1: blue planet with nothing behind him. But the vast black

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Speaker 1: sea of space. Crucially, his soun visor is lowered so

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Speaker 1: you can't see his face. That detail allows the viewer

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Speaker 1: to imagine anyone inside the suit, including themselves. McCandless believed

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Speaker 1: that was a big part of the photos appeal. The

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Speaker 1: anonymity of its subject made it more than just a

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Speaker 1: snapshot of a concrete event in history. It became the

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Speaker 1: embodiment of a collective dream of our species, one which

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Speaker 1: McCandless described as humanity's desire to be free from gravity

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Speaker 1: and to fly around in the cosmos. I'm Gabe Lucier

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Speaker 1: and hopefully you now know a little more about history

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Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. If you want to keep

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Speaker 1: up with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at t d i HC Show, and if

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Speaker 1: you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to send

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Speaker 1: them my way by writing to This Day at I

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Speaker 1: heart media dot com. Thanks, as always the Channel or

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Speaker 1: Mays for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening.

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Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day

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Speaker 1: in History Class