Astronaut Bruce McCandless II - The first person to fly freely in space

40 years ago, Bruce McCandless II performed the first headless spacewalk, creating a milestone in the history of space exploration.

On February 7, 1984, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II wore a hand-controlled backpack and was propelled by a nitrogen gas engine to fly out of the payload bay of the space shuttle Challenger, according to Live Science . He flew 98 meters away from the spacecraft, becoming the first person to attempt a space walk without a seat belt. McCandless orbited the Earth as the first human satellite in 1 hour and 22 minutes.

The photo shows astronaut Bruce McCandless II floating untethered outside the Challenger spacecraft. (Photo: NASA).

"It may have been a small step for Neil but it was a big step for me ," McCandless shared about his solo flight around the Earth.

This moment was immortalized thanks to Robert "Hoot" Gibson, pilot of the Challenger. He used a Hasselblad camera to capture the moment McCandless flew alone above Earth. It is the most famous photo of the entire space shuttle program.

Even though the photo wasn't planned, Gibson immediately knew it would be famous, so he adjusted three exposure and focus parameters four times with the photo, according to NASA. He even tilted the camera to ensure the horizon was horizontal in the photo.

McCandless served as NASA mission control liaison for Apollo 11 in 1969 and Apollo 14 in 1971. His second and final flight took place in April 1990 on the STS-31 mission. to deploy the Hubble space telescope in Earth orbit from the payload bay of the space shuttle Discovery. He passed away in 2017 at the age of 80. His backpack is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia.