James A. McDivitt, the commander of the Apollo 9 mission, tested the first full complement of lunar equipment and has passed away. He was 93. Ed White, his closest friend, and co-worker performed the first American spacewalk on the Gemini 4 mission in 1965. McDivitt also served as mission commander. His shots of White taken during the spacewalk have become famous. After the Apollo 11 moon landing, he took the space agency’s program director position for five more Apollo missions. According to NASA, McDivitt passed away on Thursday in Tucson, Arizona. However, it neither specified the cause of death nor the location.
History of McDivitt
McDivitt had never been aboard an airplane or been off the ground when he enlisted in the Air Force as an aviation cadet in 1951. NASA also picked him in 1962 as one of nine astronauts for the Gemini program. McDivitt was in charge of the Gemini 4 spacecraft in June 1965. It set a record for a two-person spaceflight by orbiting the Earth for approximately 98 hours over four days. In March 1969, McDivitt piloted the Apollo 9 trip, a three-person crew’s 10-day orbit of the Earth. It was his second and final space mission.
With a Bachelor of Science in aeronautical engineering, he was the first to graduate in 1959. In 1972, he left the Air Force and NASA as a brigadier general. Later, he had managerial positions with Consumers Power Co. in Pullman and Rockwell International, an aerospace and electronics manufacturer.
