What’s It Like To Be Totally Free?
February 13th, 2012 // 3:31 pm @ Jim // No Comments
In February 1984, astronaut Bruce McCandless stepped outside the “safety” of his Challenger spacecraft. Once outside the ship, weightless, he entered Earth’s orbit totally untethered to his “mothership.”
Now many people including my daughter, have jumped out of airplanes. They fully understand that, gravity being what it is, they are destined to move toward and rejoin the earth at a rate of speed determined by how they maneuver their parachutes. However, no matter how long one is in free-fall, one remains connected, if only by gravity, to the earth.
Up where Bruce was, gravity is just about zero. He was floating, weightless in space. He did have a nitrogen powered, jet-propelled backpack, known as the MMU or Manned Maneuvering Unit, with which he could maneuver through space, but . . . he was totally unconnected! At the time this photo was taken, Bruce was alongside and approximately 320 feet from the Challenger.
After the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986, NASA discontinued use of the MMU because it was deemed too dangerous. However in 1984 and 1985 astronauts were literally walking in space!
Imagine what thoughts were going through Bruce’s mind as he drifted untethered, with an expansive view of the entire Earth!
What would you have thought, if that were you floating out there in space? What emotions would you have felt? And after you had taken your “little ride,” exactly what would you then think is impossible?
For more details and another amazing photo see this article in Universe Today.
For more details on the flight, see NASA or see Wikipedia.
Photo Courtesy: NASA
