--- title: Astronaut Bruce McCandless and the First-Ever Untethered Space Walk description: LIFE.com celebrates incredible photos of astronaut Bruce McCandless taken during the first "untethered space walk" in history. canonical: https://time.com/3880755/astronaut-bruce-mccandless-first-ever-untethered-space-walk/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-26T17:00:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:37.451Z og:title: Astronaut Bruce McCandless and the First-Ever Untethered Space Walk og:description: LIFE.com celebrates incredible photos of astronaut Bruce McCandless taken during the first "untethered space walk" in history. og:url: https://time.com/3880755/astronaut-bruce-mccandless-first-ever-untethered-space-walk/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt78d556a60af490c6/69884c298e0601911d460167/140715-bruce-mccandless-1984-2-feat.jpg?branch=production&width=1000&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1000 og:image:height: 563 og:image:alt: Bruce McCandless, Space Walk, 1984 feat. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Astronaut Bruce McCandless and the First-Ever Untethered Space Walk twitter:description: LIFE.com celebrates incredible photos of astronaut Bruce McCandless taken during the first "untethered space walk" in history. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt78d556a60af490c6/69884c298e0601911d460167/140715-bruce-mccandless-1984-2-feat.jpg?branch=production&width=1000&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Into the Black: Bruce McCandless Floats Free in Space, 1984 > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Aug 26, 2014 5:00 PM UTC  Bruce McCandless, "untethered space walk," Feb. 1984. Bruce McCandless, "untethered space walk," Feb. 1984. NASA by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Aug 26, 2014 5:00 PM UTC On Feb. 7, 1984, “astronaut Bruce McCandless ventured further away from the confines and safety of his ship than any previous astronaut had ever been,” notes the caption to the above photo on [NASA.gov](http://www.nasa.gov/). “This space first was made possible by a nitrogen jet-propelled backpack, previously known at NASA as the Manned Maneuvering Unit or MMU. After a series of test maneuvers inside and above \[Space Shuttle\] _Challenger . . ._ McCandless went ‘free flying’ to a distance of 320 feet away from the orbiter.” Thirty years later, the photographs of McCandless’ breathtaking, first-ever untethered space walk during the fourth _Challenger_ mission still stun. (McCandless was joined on his historic walk by Col. [Robert L. Stewart](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert%5FL.%5FStewart), but it is the stirring photos of McCandless—made by _Challenger_‘s pilot, Robert “Hoot” Gibson—that have endured.) McCandless was a Navy aviator in the early 1960s—he graduated second in the Naval Academy’s class of 1958, earning a master’s degree in electrical engineering—and in 1966 was one of 19 fliers selected by NASA for astronaut training. He was instrumental in designing and testing the MMU jet pack, and for 18 years before the _Challenger_ mission that would, in a sense, immortalize him, McCandless played a role in some of NASA’s greatest triumphs: he was, for example, the Capsule Communicator, or CAPCOM, during the Apollo 11 mission. Forty-five years after Apollo 11’s lunar mission, it’s only right that we take a minute to celebrate another astonishing, hair-raising NASA first. Namely, that moment, 15 years after Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon, when McCandless briefly broke free, at-once minuscule and momentous—the human form sharply etched and intrepid against the limitless, indifferent void. ---  American astronaut Bruce McCandless photographed during the first "untethered space walk" in human history, Feb. 7, 1984\. \[NOTE: View in "Full Screen" mode; see button at right.\] NASA ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3880755/astronaut-bruce-mccandless-first-ever-untethered-space-walk/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3880755/astronaut-bruce-mccandless-first-ever-untethered-space-walk/"},"headline":"Into the Black: Bruce McCandless Floats Free in Space, 1984","datePublished":"2014-08-26T17:00:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:03:37.451Z","description":"LIFE.com celebrates incredible photos of astronaut Bruce McCandless, taken by Space Shuttle Challenger's pilot, during the first \"untethered space walk\" in history.","url":"https://time.com/3880755/astronaut-bruce-mccandless-first-ever-untethered-space-walk/","keywords":["History","Space","NASA","Astronaut","Space Exploration","space shuttle","Science and Technology"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt78d556a60af490c6/69884c298e0601911d460167/140715-bruce-mccandless-1984-2-feat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt78d556a60af490c6/69884c298e0601911d460167/140715-bruce-mccandless-1984-2-feat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bruce McCandless, Space Walk, 1984 feat.","caption":"Bruce McCandless, first \"untethered space walk\" in history, Feb. 1984.","creditText":"NASA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3880755/astronaut-bruce-mccandless-first-ever-untethered-space-walk/","name":"Into the Black: Bruce McCandless Floats Free in Space, 1984"}}]}] ```