White, Edward H., II

▪ American astronaut

in full  Edward Higgins White II  

born Nov. 14, 1930, San Antonio, Texas, U.S.

died Jan. 27, 1967, Cape Kennedy, Fla.

 first U.S. astronaut to walk in space.

      White graduated from the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., in 1952 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. He took flight training and served in a fighter squadron in Germany. In 1959 he received his M.S. in aeronautical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and graduated from the Air Force Test Pilot School, Edwards Air Force Base, California.

  White was selected in 1962 as a member of the second group of astronauts. Often called the most physically fit astronaut, he was chosen to join James A. McDivitt on the four-day orbital flight of Gemini 4, launched on June 3, 1965. During the third orbit White emerged from the spacecraft, floated in space for about 20 minutes, and became the first person to propel himself in space with a maneuvering unit. White was subsequently one of the three-man crew of Apollo (Apollo program) 1 who in 1967 were the first casualties of the U.S. space program, killed during a flight simulation (the others were Virgil I. Grissom (Grissom, Virgil I.) and Roger B. Chaffee (Chaffee, Roger B.)).

 

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