Recorded by a 16mm Camera Mounted to the Exterior of the Gemini 4 Spacecraft

Description:

Recorded by a 16mm Camera Mounted to the Exterior of the Gemini 4 Spacecraft
First U.S. spacewalk, Ed White floats away from the spacecraft, Gemini 4, June 3, 1965. Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper with 'A Kodak Paper' watermark on verso, image size 7 3/4 x 9 5/8 in. (19.5 x 24.3 cm),unmatted.
Condition: Subtle matte areas at left side.

N.B. Describing his experience as the first spacewalker, Soviet/Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov exclaimed that he "felt absolutely free, soaring like a bird... as though I had wings, as though I was flying by my own efforts" (quoted in Chaikin, Space, pp. 54-55). Three months after Leonov's spacewalk, Ed White became the first American to perform an EVA (Extravehicular Activity). During the third orbit of Earth, he opened the hatch of the capsule, pushed himself out and floated in space 135 miles above the planet for 20 minutes. This view was captured by the 16mm camera (whose shadow appears on the open hatch door at lower right) that White had mounted outside the spacecraft just before his EVA. The NASA negative number is S-65-29766.

Literature: National Geographic, September 1965, pp. 442-43.
Estimate $600-800


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