Bruce McCandless II, 1937-2017

I did not learn about Bruce McCandless's death until after John Young. I'm not sure why he did not get much press coverage. NASA did not even see this to be worth their time to put together a tribute video ...at least, none that I've been able to find. I didn't even see one peep on their official facebook feed. Curious. They reposted a stock video clip on YouTube with no audio.
(v=RvnC--JjDBw)

I had the honor of meeting both Bruce and Bob Stewart and getting to talk to them one on one. This was only socially. I did not get to work closely with them, as with John Young. This has been my wallpaper since learning that Bruce is no longer with us:

https://image.ibb.co/jGjbnR/Bruce_Mc...86_ajhfull.jpg

For me, that photo is the most inspiring of all images of an astronaut. It gives a sense of freedom that is so expansive and filled with awe, unlike no other.

So we don't have Bruce to give us his stories about that experience. I'm glad to know that Bob still hangs out at MSFC. And they've got some of his jetpacks on display there, appropriately enough.

Of course, Bruce was also the Capcom for Armstrong's first step. I would be interested to learn how he compared those two peak experiences, looking back on them. I did not think of asking him this myself, but I'd expect that others have. And if I were to guess, I could imagine him saying that the Capcom thing was a greater sense of historical magnitude, whereas the untethered EVA was a greater event experientially.

And that is the beauty and the power of these images. It gives anyone who looks at them the ability to imagine what it was like to do these things.

Bruce did tell me some very interesting stories, including from his Skylab days, which I'm sure I've shared here on this forum years back.

~ CT

In article ,
says...

I did not learn about Bruce McCandless's death until after John Young. I'm not sure why he did not get much press coverage. NASA did not even see this to be worth their time to put together a tribute video ...at least, none that I've been able to find. I didn't even see one peep on their official facebook feed. Curious. They reposted a stock video clip on YouTube with no audio.
(v=RvnC--JjDBw)

I had the honor of meeting both Bruce and Bob Stewart and getting to talk to them one on one. This was only socially. I did not get to work closely with them, as with John Young. This has been my wallpaper since learning that Bruce is no longer with us:

https://image.ibb.co/jGjbnR/Bruce_Mc...86_ajhfull.jpg

For me, that photo is the most inspiring of all images of an astronaut. It gives a sense of freedom that is so expansive and filled with awe, unlike no other.

So we don't have Bruce to give us his stories about that experience. I'm glad to know that Bob still hangs out at MSFC. And they've got some of his jetpacks on display there, appropriately enough.

Of course, Bruce was also the Capcom for Armstrong's first step. I would be interested to learn how he compared those two peak experiences, looking back on them. I did not think of asking him this myself, but I'd expect that others have. And if I were to guess, I could imagine him saying that the Capcom thing was a greater sense of historical magnitude, whereas the untethered EVA was a greater event experientially.

And that is the beauty and the power of these images. It gives anyone who looks at them the ability to imagine what it was like to do these things.

Bruce did tell me some very interesting stories, including from his Skylab days, which I'm sure I've shared here on this forum years back.

~ CT

Added to sci.space.shuttle

Jeff

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