Apollo 9 commander James McDivitt dies at 93

K. Holt@krisholtOctober 18, 2022 4:03 PMIn this posting: news, gear, nasa, room, apollo, tomorrowHUM Pictures through Getty Visuals

Former NASA astronaut James McDivitt (pictured over, on the still left) has died at the age of 93. The Apollo 9 commander passed absent in his sleep in Tuscon, Arizona, very last Thursday, the agency reported.

NASA picked Air Force veteran McDivitt, who flew 145 overcome missions in the Korean War and was an experimental take a look at pilot, as section of its second astronaut course in 1962. His initially trip to space was in 1965, as the commander of Gemini IV. Throughout that mission, astronaut Ed White performed the 1st spacewalk by an American. The 4-working day mission was the longest NASA spaceflight at that level.

McDivitt returned to place four yrs afterwards as the commander of Apollo 9, an significant precursor to landing human beings on the Moon. The mission, which launched on March 3rd, 1969, took the lunar module and the entire set of Apollo components to house for the first time.

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The Apollo 9 crew conducted an engineering exam of the lunar module in Earth’s orbit, together with a simulation of maneuvers that would be carried out during missions to the Moon. McDivitt and lunar module pilot Russell Schweickart carried out a spacewalk during the mission, which returned to Earth on March 13th. Four months later on, Neil Armstrong and Excitement Aldrin landed the lunar module on the Moon.

Immediately after the Apollo 9 mission, McDivitt turned NASA’s supervisor of lunar landing functions. McDivitt, who held a bachelor’s diploma in aeronautical engineering from the University of Michigan, and his staff prepared the lunar exploration system and redesigned the spacecraft to ensure it landed on the Moon securely. Adhering to the success of Apollo 11, he turned manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program and led it through the Apollo 16 mission.

McDivitt retired from NASA and the Air Power in 1972. Between other honors, he received two NASA Distinguished Services Medals, the NASA Extraordinary Assistance Medal and two Air Pressure Distinguished Services Medals.

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