On a sadder note: Spacewalking “Independent spacecraft” astronaut Bruce McCandless passes away

by | Dec 31, 2017 | Seradata News

Former NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II, part of the US space-shuttle missions, passed away in December at the age of 80. He rose to fame on the STS-41B Challenger voyage, in 1984, for becoming a “spacecraft” in his own right by testing the Manned Manoeuvring Unit (MMU) while not being attached to the orbiter.

An electrical engineering graduate and US Navy Captain, Bruce McCandless originally joined NASA in the 1966 group that featured many of the Apollo programme astronauts. He had a long wait to get into space. As a trained astronaut, he communicated with Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as the “Capcom” communicator in Houston during their first moon walk. McCandless missed out on spaceflight during the Apollo and Skylab era – though he was back-up pilot for the first Skylab crew. His first mission was his famous flight outside of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1984 during the STS-41B mission, which gained him the international number orbiting object designator 1984-011M1.  During his unattached spacewalk, McCandless famously announced: “It may have been a small step for Neil, but it’s a heck of a big leap for me.”

Bruce McCandless later flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-31, which deployed the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990. In between he also obtained an MBA in 1987.

We salute Captain McCandless and give our sympathy to his family and friends.

Bruce McCandless II on one of his untethered EVA “spacecraft” flights. Courtesy: NASA

 

 

 

About Seradata

Seradata produce the renowned Seradata database. Trusted by over 100 of the world’s leading Space organisations, Seradata is a fully queryable database used for market analysis, failure/risk assessment, spectrum analysis and space situational awareness (SSA).

For more information go to https://www.seradata.com/product/

Related Articles

Categories

Archives

Tags

nasaspacexecoreviewsissesaArianespacevideochina25virgin galacticFalcon 9v1.2FT Block 5falcon 9ULARoscosmosevaDGAspacewalkaviation weekaressoyuzIGTInternational Space StationBeidouawardsspaceRocket LabStarlinkBlue OriginSatellite broadcastingrussiamoonISROAirbus DSCargo Return VehicleboeingmarsblogresearchOneWebspaceshiptwoorionjaxaimpacthyperboladelaymarsEutelsatdemocratrocketlunarhypertextobamagoogle lunar prizelaunchVegabarack obamaconstellationSEStourismnorthfiguresthales alenia spacespaceflightnode 2fundedRaymond LygoIntelsat2009Lockheed MartinExpress MD-2Elon MuskAtlas Vromess2dassault aviationaviationLucy2008wk2sstlukradiomissilesuborbitaldocking portexplorationAriane 5 ECAVirgin OrbittestinternetChina Manned Space EngineeringAriane 5Northrop GrummanSLSLong March 2D/2sts-122Electron2010space tourismflightcotsnewspapermissile defensegalileospaceportExpress AMU 1Long March 4Cbuildspace stationaltairinternational astronautical congresssoyuz 2-1ashuttleProton MEuropean Space AgencyLauncherOneCosmosIntelsat 23scaled compositesrulesspace shuttlenew yorkhanleybudgetatvVietnamshenzhouAriane 6congressMojaveboldenLong March 2COrbital ATKnew shepardInmarsatGuiana Space Centeriaccneslunar landerksclawsSpace Systems/LoralUK Space AgencyLong March 4BILSUS Air ForceprotonTalulah RileyApollodarpaFalcon 9v1.2 Block 5Kuaizhou 1AVega CSkylonAstriumeupicturebaseusaastronautdragonlanderfiveeventTelesatNorth KoreaSSLElectron KSAprilSNC50thinterviewfalconSea LaunchLong MarchWednesdaycustomerlinkatlantissuccessor