The first AMERICAN to walk in space was a grad of the University of Michigan

[Pierre.Suave]

as was the other man in the Capsule with him.

Jim McDivitt

and

Ed White, the first man to leave his spacecraft in space.


Classmates at the University of Michigan.

[Deep13]

1. The first man to walk in space was Alexi Leonov of the Soviet Union. nt

[SoxFan]

2. Who played free safety for Ohio State

[Pierre.Suave]

5. Who cares

football is worthless.

[Pierre.Suave]

4. ok

first american...

[Deep13]

9. Leonov was also the first person nearly to die walking in space.

His suit was filed with air, not the low-pressure pure oxygen that Americans use, and it puffed up from the pressure when he was outside. He could not fit back into the airlock. He had to partially deflate his suit while risking the bends to get back in.

Ed White's EVA was pretty uneventful, though he did have a little trouble fitting in the right-hand seat upon returning to the capsule. It was not until Gene Cernam space-walked on Gemini 9 that the first American nearly got killed walking in space. It was so much work getting strapped into the jet pack on the back of the spacecraft that he overheated his suit causing perspiration to fog and then freeze to the visor. When he was told to forget about flying around with the jet pack, it was an ordeal to get back into the capsule. Cernan was a little taller than White and his suit has metallic mesh covering his legs to protect against the jet pack. Plus he had been out a lot longer than White. All these things contributed to the rigidity of his suit preventing him from sitting in the tiny Gemini seat. Tom Stafford finally forced Cernam into the seat by hitting him on the head with the hatch hard enough for the first tooth on the ratchet to close it. Cernam was in great pain until the capsule was repressurized and flexibility was restored to the suit. Crenam was dehydrated from the effort and received a nasty sunburn where his thermal layer had ripped while fighting with the jet pack.

[Pierre.Suave]

10. Gene Cernan

Where are you getting this info?

[Deep13]

11. Right, Cernan. Spelling error.

LMP for Apollo X and commander of Apollo XVII. I'm getting it out of my head.

[whistler162]

3. And even with that stigma they succeeded!

good for them!

:evilgrin:

[Pierre.Suave]

6. ...

oh, youre funny...


:P

[eyepaddle]

12. LOL FTW

:rofl:

[DS1]

7. and we're still trying to get you off the planet

[Pierre.Suave]

8. HA

try harder

[Ptah]

13. Now you'll probably tell us the Peace Corp was proposed in Ann Arbor.

By JFK

[Pierre.Suave]

16. yes, it was, sort of...

At 2:00 a.m. on October 14, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy addressed students on the steps of the University of Michigan Union. In his speech, he challenged the students to give two years of their lives to help people in countries of the developing world. The following is a transcript of that speech.

I want to express my thanks to you, as a graduate of the Michigan of the East, Harvard University.

I come here tonight delighted to have the opportunity to say one or two words about this campaign that is coming into the last three weeks.

I think in many ways it is the most important campaign since 1933, mostly because of the problems which press upon the United States, and the opportunities which will be presented to us in the 1960s. The opportunity must be seized, through the judgment of the President, and the vigor of the executive, and the cooperation of the Congress. Through these I think we can make the greatest possible difference.

How many of you who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world? On your willingness to do that, not merely to serve one year or two years in the service, but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete. I think it can! And I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the effort must be far greater than we have ever made in the past.

Therefore, I am delighted to come to Michigan, to this university, because unless we have those resources in this school, unless you comprehend the nature of what is being asked of you, this country can't possibly move through the next 10 years in a period of relative strength.

So I come here tonight to go to bed! But I also come here tonight to ask you to join in the effort...

This university...this is the longest short speech I've ever made...therefore, I'll finish it! Let me say in conclusion, this University is not maintained by its alumni, or by the state, merely to help its graduates have an economic advantage in the life struggle. There is certainly a greater purpose, and I'm sure you recognize it. Therefore, I do not apologize for asking for your support in this campaign. I come here tonight asking your support for this country over the next decade.

Thank you.

http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=Learn.whatispc.history.speech

If I remember correctly, it began with Hubert Humphrey from Minnesota

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Corps

While President John F. Kennedy is credited with the creation of the Peace Corps, the first initiative came from Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. (D-Minnesota) when he introduced the first bill to create the Peace Corps happened in 1957—three years prior to JFK and his University of Michigan speech. In his autobiography The Education of a Public Man, Hubert Humphrey wrote: "There were three bills of particular emotional importance to me: the Peace Corps, a disarmament agency, and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The President, knowing how I felt, asked me to introduce legislation for all three. I introduced the first Peace Corps bill in 1957. It did not meet with much enthusiasm. Some traditional diplomats quaked at the thought of thousands of young Americans scattered across their world. Many senators, including liberal ones, thought it silly and an unworkable idea. Now, with a young president urging its passage, it became possible and we pushed it rapidly through the Senate. It is fashionable now to suggest that Peace Corps Volunteers gained as much or more, from their experience as the countries they worked. That may be true, but it ought not demean their work. They touched many lives and made them better."

Bill Moyers was also instrumental in the creation of it at the time. I am glad I have had the opportunity to meet him and talk with him for an hour.

[Ptah]

17. hmm

"While President John F. Kennedy is credited with the creation of the Peace Corps,
the first initiative came from Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. (D-Minnesota)
when he introduced the first bill to create the Peace Corps happened in
1957—three years prior to JFK and his University of Michigan speech."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_corp

[Pierre.Suave]

18. Check my post again

[Orsino]

14. And he disobeyed orders to do it, IIRC. n/t

[Pierre.Suave]

15. LOL

no he did not, the spacewalk was planned well in advance.

[Orsino]

19. Duh. The MMU wasn't sent along as emergency rations.

But Ed White either disobeyed the order to return or was the victim of a communications failure nigh-worthy of Captain Kirk.

(Accounts differ, some blaming McDivitt for not relaying the order.)

[Pierre.Suave]

20. Well

I just saw film of it as well as listened to the radio communications.

There was no disobeying of orders.

[Orsino]

21. Yeah. On film, we get to hear all of the audio channels mixed, I think.

IIRC, suit-to-suit and air-to-ground comms were two different circuits--or became so based on a switch that McDivitt controlled. White may not have heard the order to return for quite a while.