Bruce McCandless obituary
In 1984 the astronaut Bruce McCandless, who has died aged 80, took the world's breath away by becoming the first person to make an untethered spacewalk. Using a backpack equipped with nitrogen thrusters to move himself around, McCandless floated free in the void from the space shuttle Challenger for around four hours before returning to his colleagues inside. The main aim of the nine-day mission had been to release two communications satellites, and the spacewalk, while scientifically relevant, was really just icing on the cake. Nevertheless it was a vision of the ultimate, triumphant existentialist.
McCandless found the untethered exercise highly exhilarating. "It was a wonderful feeling, a mix of personal elation and professional pride," he said. "It had taken many years to get to that point. Several people were sceptical it would work, and with 300 hours of flying practice, I was over-trained. My wife was at Mission Control and there was quite a bit of apprehension. I wanted to say something similar to Neil Armstrong when he landed on the moon, so I said, 'It might have been a small step for Neil, but it's a heck of a big leap for me.' That loosened the tension a bit."
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