Media Information
 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Title:
To Fly Free in Space
Explanation:
At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce McCandless II was further out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit [ http://www.astronau…] (MMU), astronaut McCandless, pictured above [ http://grin.hq.nasa…], was floating free in space. McCandless [ http://www.jsc.nasa…] and fellow NASA astronaut [ http://www.jsc.nasa…] Robert Stewart [ http://www.jsc.nasa…] were the first to experience such an "untether [ http://www-istp.gsf…]ed space walk [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]" during Space Shuttle [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] mission 41-B [ http://www-pao.ksc.…] in 1984 [ http://www.online-l…]. The MMU [ http://galacticvoya…] works by shooting jets of nitrogen [ http://pearl1.lanl.…] and has since been used to help deploy and retrieve satellites. With a mass over 140 kilograms, an MMU is heavy on Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], but, like everything, is weightless when drifting in orbit. The MMU was replaced with the SAFER [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] backpack propulsion unit.
Credit and Copyright:
STS-41B [ http://www-pao.ksc.…], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/]
facet_who:
Bruce McCandless II
facet_who:
Robert Stewart
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_where:
Johnson Space Center (JSC)
facet_what:
Earth
facet_what:
Challenger
facet_what:
Space Shuttle Orbiter
original url:
http://antwrp.gsfc.…
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap050322

To Fly Free in Space
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