
The extra-vehicular activity (EVA) lasted 23 minutes, during which time White floated free outside the spacecraft, attached by an 8-metre tether. The EVA began whilst the craft was over the Pacific Ocean and ended over the Gulf of Mexico. This photograph, taken by the second of the two-man crew, James McDivitt, shows the oxygen jet-gun in White’s right hand, although it ran out after only 3 minutes, after which time, White moved around by a combination of pulling on the tether and twisting his body. When re-entering the capsule at the end of the EVA, White was recorded as saying "I'm coming back in - and it's the saddest moment of my life".
The US, in fact, were beaten by just a few weeks to the prize of being the first nation to perform a spacewalk, when Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov left the confines of the tiny Voskhod 2 capsule on the 18th March 1965 for a 12-minute EVA.
NASA has released the below half-hour documentary in celebration of the 50 years of extravehicular activities, that began with the first two EVAs conducted by Russian Alexey Leonov and American astronaut Edward White in 1965.