On February 7, 1984, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless became the first person to go on a spacewalk without a tether.
McCandless was wearing a type of jetpack known as the Manned Manoeuvring Unit, or MMU. The MMU fit over a regular EMU spacesuit and included gas thrusters that allowed astronauts to venture much farther away from the space shuttle. McCandless was able to venture 320 feet away from the space shuttle Challenger. The MMU was used during three space shuttle missions in 1984, and astronauts used it to retrieve two faulty communications satellites.
McCandless was wearing a type of jetpack known as the Manned Manoeuvring Unit, or MMU. The MMU fit over a regular EMU spacesuit and included gas thrusters that allowed astronauts to venture much farther away from the space shuttle. McCandless was able to venture 320 feet away from the space shuttle Challenger. The MMU was used during three space shuttle missions in 1984, and astronauts used it to retrieve two faulty communications satellites.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:04On February 7th, 1984, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless became the
00:08first person to go on a spacewalk without a tether.
00:12McCandless was wearing a type of jetpack known as the Manned Maneuvering Unit, or MMU.
00:16The MMU fit over a regular EMU space suit and included gas thrusters
00:20that allowed astronauts to venture much farther away from the space shuttle.
00:24McCandless was able to venture 320 feet away from the space shuttle Challenger.
00:28The MMU was used during three space shuttle missions in 1984,
00:32and astronauts used it to retrieve two faulty communications satellites.
00:36And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:40NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology