News Astronaut Bruce McCandless II Dies at 80

[GLS]

Astronaut Bruce McCandless II Dies at 80
http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=52012

Former NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II, mission specialist on the STS-41B and STS-31 missions, died Dec. 21, 2017, at the age of 80.

RIP

---------- Post added at 10:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:12 PM ----------

A photo without the helmet:

Some might not know his face, but you probably know his voice as he was the CapCom for the Apollo 11 EVA.

 

[Andy44]

I can't see the photo, but I assume it's the famous one of his first-ever untethered spacewalk? I remember I had a copy of that on the cover of a magazine, Discover I think, back in the day. I didn't realize he was so old.

 

[barrygolden]

Thanks for the news even though sad. Bruce was one of my favorite astronauts I am sadden by his passing.

 

[C3PO]

I can't see the photo, but I assume it's the famous one of his first-ever untethered spacewalk?

IIRC it's the 2'nd most replicated photo in NASA's archive. (No price for guessing the top spot )

I remember the MMU maiden voyage well. One of my favorite astronauts!

Godspeed!

 

[barrygolden]

one of the youngest Apollo astronauts was moved to the AAPO program and worked a lot on the different MMU's from the Skylab version to the one flown in the shuttle which hangers in the JSC visitor center

 

[jgrillo2002]

DAMNIT! Why do we keep losing these great innovators and pioneers! Godspeed Bruce. o7

 

[MikeB]

Why do we keep losing these great innovators and pioneers!

Certain carbon-based system components fail as they age. Probably a design issue.