First American walked in space 50 years ago

Fifty years ago on Wednesday, NASA astronaut Ed White stepped out of his space capsule and walked in space for the first time. White's spacewalk was part of NASA's Gemini program. He left the confines of his Gemini capsule while astronaut James McDivitt stayed inside, monitoring the walk. Since White's historic spacewalk (called an extra-vehicular activity, or EVA, in NASA-speak), the space agency has continued to send men and women into the vacuum of space with only a well-designed suit to protect them. In total, NASA astronauts have performed more than 260 spacewalks, including the EVAs that put people on the moon for the first time.

"Without the path first blazed by Ed White - and before him, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov - our current platform in space would not be possible," Pearlman said. Spacesuits and spacewalking methods have also evolved since White's spacewalk in 1965. "When astronauts someday walk on the surface of Mars, they will do so in part because of the journey begun by Gemini 4 and the 20-minute spacewalk performed by Ed White 50 years ago," he said. White died tragically in the Apollo 1 fire in 1967, along with two other astronauts. You can watch a 30-minute documentary about the history of spacewalks called Suit Up from NASA now.