Low Earth Orbit

June 3, 1965

The doors, now unstuck, of the Gemini capsule swung open silently, revealing to the astronauts within the impossibly broad vista of outer space. Below, McDivitt and White saw Australia passing beneath them through thin cloud cover.

White unbuckled himself and sat up, extending his body through the hatch before gently kicking off, floating through the door. A series of tethers and oxygen hoses kept him from floating far, but in that moment astronaut Ed White became the first human being to conduct extra-vehicular activity (EVA) in outer space.

McDivitt was ready with the camera, snapping several photographs of White outside the capsule, clutching his tethers in one hand and a "zip gun", essentially a pressurized oxygen canister that allowed him to maneuver in zero-gravity environs, in the other. White drifted in space for twenty minutes until Divitt, urged on by ground controllers, coaxed White back into the capsule.

The world's first EVA was the highlight of the mission, though several important experiments-- including an effort to rendezvous in orbit with the spent Titan-II booster-- were also conducted. Photographs of White in outer space graced the front pages of all major American newspapers and other papers working with the Associated Press.

White and McDivitt met with President Kennedy and Vice President Johnson at a ceremony in the Rose Garden upon their safe return to Earth. President Kennedy awarded both astronauts the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and delivered remarks to the assembled press.

Four years ago, the United States was well behind the Soviet Union in the race to the stars. It is with great pride, I think, that today the American people can claim the lead in that race. In those four short years American ingenuity and determination have seen NASA vault ahead of their Soviet counterparts, achieving a world-first: the first man in human history has seen, unobstructed, the beauty of our small planet in the vastness of space. This is an achievement that our astronauts, and indeed all Americans, should view as an important milestone on our mission.