WASHINGTON: Bruce McCandless, an astronaut who was the first to fly untethered from his spacecraft in a gripping scene watched around the world, has died at the age of 80, NASA announced on its website.
The US space agency did not give the cause of death on Thursday for the longtime resident of the western state of Colorado.
The son and grandson of decorated war heroes, he graduated near the top of his class at the US Naval Academy. In the navy, he learned to pilot at least nine different aircraft, rising to the rank of captain.
At age 26 in 1966, NASA picked him as the youngest member of a newly recruited 19-man astronaut group.He was a member of the support crew for the Apollo 14 mission and a backup pilot for the first manned Skylab mission, before serving as mission specialist on two space shuttle missions.
12-24-2017, 06:03 PM
McCandless, first astronaut to fly untethered, dies
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