Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Just testing out their suit.

The other two EVA firsts were also short
Socrates II — (archived)

Ed White's lasted 10 minutes (and he did not want to come back into the spacecraft), and Leonov's (the very first EVA in history) lasted
20 minutes.

White was originally supposed to just stand up in the hatchway,
but after Leonov's feat (and the resulting problems that were not
revealed until decades later), NASA knew White had to spacewalk
or end up making the USA look even more second-best in this area.

Did you also know that White and McDivitt got a dressing down by
the then NASA head after their Gemini 4 mission for their "unprofessional" behavior regarding the EVA? This was because
White joked about not wanting to come back in.

No wonder so many of those astronauts in the early days seemed so
stiff. Only regulation emotions were allowed, if at all.

See also:

Portree, David S. F.; Robert C. Treviño (October 1997). "Walking to Olympus: An EVA Chronology" (PDF). Monographs in Aerospace History Series #7. NASA History Office.

http://history.nasa.gov/monograph7.pdf

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