Astronaut Bruce McCandless II became the first human being to do a spacewalk without a safety tether linked to a spacecraft. In 1984, he floated completely untethered in space with nothing but his Manned Maneuvering Unit keeping him alive.
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So. The loneliest man in history. For a few minutes.
So thats where my dad went looking for milk
Crazy to think about inertial references in this pic.
He looks stationary, but he’s actually traveling at 17,500 mph relative to earth’s surface.
/edit: I was corrected on the speed
“We’ve been trying to reach you about your car’s extended warranty”
I can remember this. It was a HUGE deal. This was the first time an MMU was used. It was crazy and amazing. It was science fiction in action.
Sega Megadrive graphics
I said biiiiiiiiiiiiiitch
And he hasn’t been seen since.
I know it seems weird but, who took the photo?
No Thank You
Is it tradition at this point that having the last name “McCandless” makes you do extremely dangerous activities?
I would assume they had multiple contingency plans for a malfunction. Like just fly the shuttle over and grab him.
How did his balls not drag him back to Earth?
This makes my palms sweat
Brb, I gotta go play some Solar Jetman.
These McCandlesses will go to great lengths to avoid the rest of us
But Why? Surely we can test all the MMU while having a safety teather.
This picture terrifies me. The idea of floating untethered in the infinite void of space.
Even normal EVA suit is generally considered to be more like a one person space craft than something you wear.
Someone clearly said “pic or it didn’t happen, Bruce”
The space balls on this guy
Sandra Bullock does not approve of this.
Planet Earth is blue and there‘s nothing I can do
How does someone fit balls that big inside a spacesuit?
This is something I have no desire to do. Even the pic is terrifying.
That is one of the most badass photos ever taken. Absolutely insane.
Old Bruce must have had quite the pair on him to want to fuck with that. It’s a wonder that he could float at all with those balls weighing him down.
“Tell my wife I love her”
Everything seemed to be on ‘wildin mode’ 24/7 in the 80s
for that time this was very ballzy its like landing on the moon the first time. BUT really if jets failed it probably would be no big deal to use the jets on the shuttle to maneuver back to him it would just take a while and there would be a lot of sweating with all involved. i dont think they ever tried it again?
now what surprises me is they dont do a walk around in space before re entry? just Teather up and float around the ship looking for surface problems
If anyone knows their space history, NASA from the early 80s till about the mid 90s was a different beast. My favorite is when they literally grabbed a satellite from orbit by pulling up to it in the space shuttle and jumping out and grabbing it by hand 🤣🤣🤣
Bruce McCordless
“Fun” fact: McCandless sued Dido for using this image on the cover of her 2008 album “Safe trip home”.
Went to elementary school with this guy’s great nephew. Every goddamn show-and-tell or class presentation I had to see this picture and hear the same story about Bruce Fucking Mccandless. At least once a year. And this is a small school. I more or less went to class with the same 50 kids for K thru 8. By third grade every kid in class collectively rolled their eyes at the mention of Bruce
Fuck that. No thank you. No. Fuck no. Fuck out of here.
And thus was born the cover photo of every middle-school math and science book in America.
I was going to make a comment about how you have to have balls of steel to put that much faith into the technology of your spacesuit, but then I remembered that everyone who has ever been to space is putting an equal amount of faith into the explosive missile that took them there in the first place.
Fun fact: with a certain type of sensor, you can zoom in and magnetically see the massive balls of steel here
Nope
Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope
I think this is the most terrifying photo I’ve ever seen.
Turn out McCandells huge balls is the reason why he didn’t float away.
Bruce Mc”Cordless” 😀 Nice!
How did they cram his huge steel balls in to that space suit?
I’m surprised they could fit his massive balls in that space suit.