Explanation: At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce McCandless II was farther out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), astronaut McCandless, pictured above, was floating free in space. McCandless and fellow NASA astronaut Robert Stewart were the first to experience such an "untethered space walk" during Space Shuttle mission 41-B in 1984. The MMU works by shooting jets of nitrogen and has since been used to help deploy and retrieve satellites. With a mass over 140 kilograms, an MMU is heavy on Earth, but, like everything, is weightless when drifting in orbit. The MMU was replaced with the SAFER backpack propulsion unit.
And I thought Sears Tower glass balcony was scary!
6 comments:
That picture makes my belly do the flip-flops :/
Mine too Andrea! No tether? No way...not even with a tether would I do it! Not for a million dollars. Too, too scary!
ot, but I just wanted to let you know that my blog url has changed
http://agalandherblog.blogspot.com/
It's the same blog, just a different address.
Thanks Andrea (nice avatar!)The boys ready for Halloween?
Crazy as I am I'd do it--but only with a tether. The picture reminds me too much of that eerie scene in 2001 where Dave goes after Frank Bowman's lifeless body. Except McCandless would, if he couldn't make it back to the shuttle, fall and burn up in Earth's atmosphere. That's seriously scary.
I'd do it with a tether...maybe. :)
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