Ed White performed the first American spacewalk during NASA’s Gemini 4 mission in June 1965.
White opened Gemini 4’s hatch on June 3, 1965, and floated outside the spacecraft for about 23 minutes. He used a hand-held maneuvering gun powered by oxygen to help control his movement and described the experience as the best part of the mission.
The achievement followed Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov’s first spacewalk during Voskhod 2 earlier in 1965. White’s spacewalk demonstrated that an astronaut could work outside a spacecraft, although Gemini 4 also showed how difficult it was to control body motion in microgravity.
White flew Gemini 4 with commander James McDivitt. He later became part of the Apollo 1 crew and died in the spacecraft fire during a ground test in 1967.