3 Memorable Spacewalks—That Are Largely Forgotten

The first space walk—by Alexi Leonov in March 1965—and the first American space walk, by Ed White a few months later are pretty well-known. They’re firsts, and people were paying attention. But some amazing space walks are largely forgotten. Here are 3.

1. Al Worden takes a deep space walk. August 1971.

Well, since his crew mates took the first lunar buggy excursions on the lunar surface, people tended to overlook Al Worden’s space walk. But his was special. Until Worden stepped out of the Apollo 15 spacecraft, every space walk in history had been from Earth orbit. Worden was 275,000 miles from Earth. His walk was brief and the task mundane (retrieve film canisters.) But it was incredible. The remaining 2 Apollo moon missions saw similar deep space walks. And since then…nothing like it has ever happened again.

2. Gene Cernan’s space walk from hell. June 1966.

Who would notice America’s second space walk? Unlike Ed White’s 20 minute walk to test out the space suit and maneuver around, Cernan’s walk would be 2 1/2 hours of hard work. He barely returned safely into the Gemini 9a spacecraft after his helmet fogged up, destroying his ability to see. And he lost several pounds from stress and sweating…because it proved difficult to work in space without the right tools.

3. Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya. July 1984.

Svetlana Yevgenyevna made the first space walk by a woman in July 1984, giving the Soviet Union…who had lost the moon race…another first. The walk, outside the Salyut 7 space station, lasted more than 3 1/2 hours. And, like in the good old days, the first American woman to walk in space followed just a few months later. Kathryn Sullivan’s spacewalk took place in October 1984.

But who remembers?!