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NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless, the first person to fly freely and untethered in space, has died. He was 80. He was famously photographed in 1984 flying with a hefty spacewalker's jetpack, alone in the cosmic blackness above a blue Earth. He traveled more than 300 feet away from the space shuttle Challenger during the spacewalk. NASA's Johnson Space Center said Friday that McCandless died Thursday in California. No cause of death was given. Born in Boston, McCandless graduated from Woodrow Wilson Senior High School in Long Beach, California. He graduated from the Naval Academy and earned master's degrees in electrical engineering and business administration. Let us take a look at some of the images of his famous spacewalk:
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The iconic photo of Bruce soaring effortlessly in space has inspired generations of Americans to believe that there is no limit to the human potential. McCandless said he wasn't nervous about the historic spacewalk. (Image: NASA via AP)
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During that flight, McCandless and fellow astronaut Robert L. Stewart pioneered the use of NASA's backpack device that allowed astronauts walking in space to propel themselves from the shuttle. Stewart became the second person to fly untethered two hours after McCandless.(Image: NASA via AP)
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McCandless was later part of the 1990 shuttle crew that delivered the Hubble Space Telescope to orbit. He also served as the Mission Control capsule communicator in Houston as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in 1969. (Image: NASA via AP)
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McCandless was selected for astronaut training during the Gemini program, and he was a backup pilot for the first manned Skylab mission in 1973. (Image: NASA via AP)
After leaving NASA, McCandless worked for Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Colorado. (Image: NASA via AP) -
Survivors include his wife, Ellen Shields McCandless of Conifer, Colorado, two children and two grandchildren. (Image: NASA via AP)
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