Fifty one years ago, on June 3, 1965, Edward H. White became the first American to walk in space. As pilot for the Gemini 4 mission, Ed White was able to step outside the Gemini capsule for 21 minutes, tethered to the spacecraft but propelled about by a hand held jet-propulsion gun.

I remember how fantastic that seemed to my young boy mind way back then.  It is still pretty cool to think about it now.

Unfortunately, on January 27, 1967, Ed White, along with Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, died in a flash fire in the Apollo 1 command module during a launch rehearsal test.