Edward Higgins White

Edward Higgins White, II
NASA Astronaut
Nationality	American
Status	Killed during training
Other occupation	Test pilot
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel, USAF
Time in space	4d 01h 56m
Selection	1962 NASA Group
Total EVAs	1
Total EVA time	36 minutes
Missions	Gemini 4, Apollo 1
Mission insignia

Edward Higgins White, II (Lt Col, USAF) (November 14, 1930 – January 27, 1967) was an engineer, United States Air Force officer and a NASA astronaut. On June 3, 1965, he became the first American to "walk" in space. White was killed along with fellow astronauts Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee during a pre-launch test for the first manned Apollo mission at the Kennedy Space Center. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and had previously been awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal for his Gemini 4 spaceflight.

Early years

He was born in San Antonio, Texas, where he went to school and also became member of the Boy Scouts of America^[1]. After graduation from high school, he entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he earned his B.S. degree and his second lieutenant's bar in 1952, during the Korean War.^[2] Rather than entering the Army, White chose to enter the U.S. Air Force and attend flight school, a course that takes more than a year. After a period of active service as an Air Force pilot, White enrolled the University of Michigan under Air Force sponsorship to study aeronautical engineering, where he earned his Master of Science degree in 1959.

Years later in his Air Force and NASA career, White achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Air Force. During his Air Force service he had served most of the time as a fighter pilot in F-86 Sabre and F-100 Super Sabre squadrons. White also attended the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and he graduated from this school to become a test pilot for the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Division. In the grand total over his career, White logged more than 3,000 flight hours with the Air Force, including about 2,200 hours in jet airplanes.

White married Patricia Finegan White, and they became the parents of two children, Bonnie Lynn White and Edward White III.

NASA career

This is the saddest moment of my life

– Astronaut Edward H. White reentering the spacecraft after his ETA having been ordered by Houston to do so, ^[3]

Edward White during EVA. During the Gemini 4 mission, White became the first American astronaut to perform a spacewalk.

Crew photo, Apollo 1.

Apollo I mission insignia

White was chosen as part of the second group of astronauts in 1962. Within an already elite group, White was considered to be a high-flyer by the management of NASA. As the pilot of Gemini 4, White became the first American to make a walk in space, on June 3, 1965. He found the experience so exhilarating that he was reluctant to terminate the EVA at the allotted time, and had to be ordered back into the spacecraft. While he was outside, a spare thermal glove floated away through the open hatch of the spacecraft, becoming an early piece of space debris in low-earth orbit for a time, until it burned up upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

White's next assignment after Gemini 4 was as the back-up for Gemini 7 Command Pilot Frank Borman. He was also named the astronaut specialist for the flight control systems of the Apollo Command/Service Module. By the usual procedure of crew rotation in the Gemini program, White would have been in line for a second flight as the Command Pilot of Gemini 10, which would have made him the first of his group to fly twice. But in 1966 he was selected as Senior Pilot (second seat) for the first manned Apollo flight, designated AS-204.

Death

White trained and prepared with Command Pilot Virgil "Gus" Grissom and Pilot (third seat) Roger Chaffee for a planned February 21, 1966 launch of AS-204, which they named Apollo 1. On January 27, they participated in the first "plugs-out" test of the spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, intended to rehearse the countdown procedure for launch. Mid-way through the test, a fire broke out in the cabin, killing all three men.

White was buried with full military honors at West Point Cemetery and in 1997 was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. Grissom and Chaffee are both buried in Section 3 (GPS Coordinates: 38.873115 N, -77.072755 W) of Arlington National Cemetery.

White was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1993 and the National Aviation Hall of Fame on July 18, 2009.^[4][5]

~ Accomplishments in Space Commemorative Issue of 1967 ~

Memorials

Earthbound

Schools

Many schools have been named in honor of Colonel White:

• Edward White Elementary Career Academy in Chicago^[6]
• Edward H. White Middle School in San Antonio, Texas^[7]
• Ed White Elementary School in El Lago, Texas^[8]
• Ed White Memorial High School in League City, Texas^[9]
• Edward H. White High School in Jacksonville, Florida^[10]
• Edward H. White Elementary School in Houston, Texas.
• Ed White Middle School in Huntsville, Alabama, is named after him.^[11] Huntsville is home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and has strong community ties to the space program. At the same time, the Huntsville City Schools named Roger B. Chaffee Elementary School and Virgil I. Grissom High School for White's fallen Apollo 1 crewmates.^[12]

Others

• Edward White Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida was named in his honor.
• Edward H. White II Park in Fullerton, California is named for him.^[13] Fullerton has also named parks in honor of Chaffee and Grissom.
• Island White, an artificial island in Long Beach Harbor off Southern California is named for him ^[14][15].
• Edward H. White Hall is a dormitory at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas named in his honor and houses the 365th Training Squadron which train aircraft avionics troops.
• Edward White Way, a service road at Oakland International Airport, Oakland, California.

In space

• The star Iota Ursae Majoris was nicknamed "Dnoces" ("Second", as in "Edward Higgins White the Second", spelled backwards) in his honor.
• White Hill, 11.2 km (7.0 mi) northwest of Columbia Memorial Station on Mars, is named after him as part of the Apollo 1 Hills.

Philatelic

• Eight months after his death, in September 1967, a postage stamp was issued by the United States Post Office, commemorating White's space walk, the first-ever by an American.^[16] It was the first time in USPO history that the design was actually spread over two stamps (one which featured White, the other his Gemini capsule, the two connected by a tether), which was considered befitting the "twins" aspect of the Gemini mission.^[12] White's name did not appear on the stamps.

White in the movies

White was played by Steven Ruge in the 1995 film Apollo 13 and by Chris Isaak in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.

Physical description

• Weight: 176 lb (80 kg)
• Height: 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
• Hair: Reddish Brown
• Eyes: brown

See also

• Alexey Leonov - first man to conduct a spacewalk.
• Voskhod 2 - first Soviet manned space mission.

References

External links

• NASA biography
• Astronaut Memorial Foundation website
• America's First Space Walk - slideshow by Life magazine