| Edward Higgins White, II | |
|---|---|
| NASA Astronaut | |
| Nationality | American |
| Status | Killed during training |
| Born | November 14, 1930 San Antonio, Texas |
| Died | January 27, 1967 (aged 36) Cape Canaveral, Florida |
| 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 NASA astronaut. On June 3, 1965, he became the first American to "walk" in space. White died along with fellow astronauts Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee during a pre-launch test for the first manned Apollo mission at Cape Kennedy. He was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his Gemini 4 spaceflight and was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.[1]
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White was born in San Antonio, Texas, where he attended school and became a member of the Boy Scouts of America.[2] After graduation from high school, he was accepted to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where in 1952 he earned his Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force.[3] White then chose a commission with the U.S. Air Force and attended flight school, a course that takes more than a year. Following graduation from flight school, white was assigned to the 22nd Fighter Day Squadron at Bitburg Air Base, Germany and would spend three and a half years in Germany flying in F-86 Sabre and F-100 Super Sabre squadrons.[4][5]
In 1958, White enrolled in the University of Michigan under Air Force sponsorship to study aeronautical engineering, where he earned his Master of Science degree in 1959. Following graduation, White was selected to attend the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base and was then assigned as a test pilot at the Aeronautical Systems Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. During his career, White would log more than 3,000 flight hours with the Air Force, including about 2,200 hours in jets, and would ultimately attain the rank of lieutenant colonel.
In 1953, White married Patricia Finegan, whom he met while at West Point.[6] The Whites would have two children, Edward White III (born 15 September, 1953) and Bonnie Lynn White (born 15 May, 1956).[7] White was a devout Methodist.[8]
White was one of nine men chosen as part of the second group of astronauts in 1962. Within an already elite group, White was considered to be a high-flier by the management of NASA. He was chosen as Pilot of Gemini 4, with Command Pilot James McDivitt. 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, until it burned up upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. There was a mechanical problem with the hatch mechanism, which made it difficult to open and to relatch, which added to the time constraint of the spacewalk, and could have threatened the lives of both men if McDivitt had been unable to get the hatch latched, as they could not re-enter the atmosphere with an unsealed hatch.
This is the saddest moment of my life.
— Astronaut Edward H. White while reentering the spacecraft after his EVA, [9]
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 in July 1966, which would have made him the first of his group to fly twice.
But in March 1966 he was selected as Senior Pilot (second seat) for the first manned Apollo flight, designated AS-204, along with Command Pilot Virgil "Gus" Grissom, who had flown in space on the Mercury 4 Liberty Bell 7 mission and as commander of the Gemini 3 Molly Brown mission, and Pilot Roger Chaffee, who had yet to fly into space. The mission, which the men named Apollo 1 in June, was originally planned for late 1966 (perhaps concurrent with the last Gemini mission), but delays in the spacecraft development pushed the launch into 1967.
Launch of Apollo 1 was planned for February 21, 1967, when the crew entered the spacecraft on January 27, mounted atop its Saturn IB booster on Launch Pad 34 at Cape Kennedy, for a "plugs-out" test of the spacecraft, which included a rehearsal of the launch countdown procedure. Mid-way through the test, a fire broke out in the cabin, killing all three men. White's job in an emergency was to open the hatch, which he apparently tried to do; his body was found in his center seat, with his arms reaching over his head toward the hatch. This was an impossible task, as the hatch opened into the cabin and was held in place by greater than atmospheric pressure. The fire increased the pressure to the point where the cabin wall ruptured, and the astronauts were killed by asphyxiation and smoke inhalation.
The fire's ignition source was never determined, but their deaths were attributed to a wide range of lethal hazards in the early Apollo Command Module design and workmanship, and conditions of the test, including: the highly pressurized 100% oxygen pre-launch atmosphere; many wiring and plumbing flaws; flammable materials used in the cockpit and the astronauts' flight suits; and the hatch which could not be opened quickly in an emergency.[10] After the tragedy, these problems were fixed, and the Apollo program carried on successfully to reach its objective of landing men on the Moon.
White was buried with full military honors at West Point Cemetery while Grissom and Chaffee are both buried in Section 3 (GPS Coordinates: 38.873115 N, -77.072755 W) of Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1997, White was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. White was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1993 and the National Aviation Hall of Fame on July 18, 2009.[11][12]
Many schools have been named in honor of Lt Colonel White:
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.
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