Edward Higgins White

Edward Higgins White, II
NASA Astronaut
Status	Killed during training
Born	November 14, 1930(1930-11-14) San Antonio, Texas
Died	January 27, 1967 (aged 36) Cape Canaveral, Florida
Other occupation	Test pilot
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel, USAF
Time in space	4d 01h 56m
Selection	1962 NASA Group
Missions	Gemini 4, Apollo 1
Mission insignia

Edward Higgins White, II (Lt.Col , USAF) (November 14, 1930 – January 27, 1967) was an engineer, United States Air Force officer and a NASA astronaut. On June 3, 1965, he became the first American to conduct a spacewalk. White was killed along with fellow astronauts Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee during a training exercise and pre-launch test for the first Apollo mission at the Kennedy Space Center. White was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and had previously been awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal for his Gemini 4 spaceflight.

Early years

He was born in San Antonio, Texas where he was a Second Class Scout in the Boy Scouts of America^[1] and earned a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy in 1952,^[2] and an M.S. in aeronautical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1959. He attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force and was a pilot of F-86 and F-100 fighter jets. White was an experimental test pilot for the Aeronautical Systems Division and logged more than 3,000 flight hours, including 2,200 in jet aircraft. He was married to Patricia Finegan White and had two children, Bonnie Lynn and Edward III.

NASA career

Edward White during EVA. During the Gemini 4 mission, White became the first American astronaut to perform a spacewalk.

He was chosen as part of second group of astronauts in 1962. Within an already elite group, White was considered a high-flyer by the NASA management. As pilot of Gemini 4, he was the first American to make a spacewalk (on June 3, 1965). During his EVA an extra thermal glove floated away from inside the Gemini spacecraft, which is now a piece of Space Debris. He was later a backup command pilot for Gemini 7.

White was also made Astronaut specialist for the flight control systems of the Apollo CSM. By the usual process of crew rotation in the Gemini program, White would have been in line for a second orbital flight as Command Pilot of Gemini 10 — making him the first of his group to be selected to fly twice — but instead was promoted in 1966 to be command module pilot for the first fateful Apollo program flight AS-204.

Death

Crew photo, Apollo 1.

Apollo I mission insignia

He died with fellow astronauts "Gus" Grissom and Roger Chaffee in the Apollo 1 fire at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. He was buried with full military honors at West Point Cemetery and in 1997 was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. Grissom and Chaffee are both buried in Section 3 of Arlington National Cemetery. Ed White was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame on July 18, 2009.^[3][4]

Memorials

Earthbound

Schools

Many schools have been named in honor of Colonel White:

• Edward White Elementary Career Academy in Chicago^[5]
• Edward H. White Middle School in San Antonio, Texas^[6]
• Ed White Elementary School in El Lago, Texas^[7]
• Ed White Memorial High School in League City, Texas^[8]
• Edward H. White High School in Jacksonville, Florida^[9]
• Edward H. White Elementary School in Houston, Texas.
• Ed White Middle School in Huntsville, Alabama, is named after him.^[10] Huntsville is home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and has strong community ties to the space program. At the same time, the Huntsville City Schools named Roger B. Chaffee Elementary and Virgil I. Grissom High School for White's fallen Apollo 1 crewmates.^[11]

Others

• Edward White Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida was named in his honor.
• Edward H. White II Park in Fullerton, California is named for him.^[12] Fullerton has also named parks in honor of Chaffee and Grissom.
• Island White, an artificial island in Long Beach Harbor off Southern California is named for him ^[13][14].

In Space

• The star Iota Ursae Majoris was named "Dnoces" ("Second", as in "Edward Higgins White the Second", spelled backwards) in his honor.
• White Hill, 11.2 km (7.0 mi) northwest of Columbia Memorial Station on Mars, is named after him as part of the Apollo 1 Hills.

Philatelic

• Eight months after his death, in September 1967, a postage stamp was issued by the United States Post Office, commemorating White's space walk, the first-ever by an American.^[15] It was the first time in USPO history that the design was actually spread over two stamps (one which featured White, the other his Gemini capsule, the two connected by a tether), which was considered befitting the "twins" aspect of the Gemini mission.^[11] White's name did not appear on the stamps.

White in the movies

White was played by Steven Ruge in the 1995 film Apollo 13 and by Chris Isaak in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.

Physical description

• Weight: 176 lb (80 kg)
• Height: 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
• Hair: Reddish Brown
• Eyes: brown

See also

United States Air Force portal

• Alexey Leonov - first man to conduct a spacewalk.
• Voskhod 2 - first Soviet manned space mission.

References

External links

• NASA biography
• Astronaut Memorial Foundation website