Bruce McCandless II Papers

Bruce McCandless II (1937--2017) was a naval aviator, astronaut, and engineer who was the first human to conduct a spacewalk without a safety tether linked to a spacecraft. The youngest of 19 astronauts selected in 1966, he served as the voice of Mission Control during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, talking with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during their historic walk on the Moon. He helped develop an early maneuvering unit tested on Skylab in 1973-74 and then on the design and testing of the shuttle-era Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU). McCandless also had a keen interest in creating tools for extravehicular activity, including a patented connection system that eased tool transport and use in space called the "McTether," which became a standard tool on Shuttle missions. Altogether McCandless logged 5,000 hours in jet aircraft and 312 hours in space. This collection consists of approximately 30 cubic ft of papers, including reports, presentations, notes, office files, photographs and video/film created or collected by Bruce McCandless II. The papers show McCandless' myriad contributions to spaceflight and space science at both NASA and Lockheed Martin Space Systems, focusing on his contributions to the MMU and inputs to the development of hardware and procedures for the Hubble Space Telescope and the Solar Maximum Repair Mission.

Bruce McCandless II, astronaut, engineer and inventor, instantly became an icon of human ingenuity on February 7, 1984, when he was photographed free floating in the inky blackness of space, hundreds of feet from the Space Shuttle Challenger, using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), a machine he spent almost twenty years developing during his career at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 8, 1937, to Rear Admiral Bruce and Sue McCandless. From a young age, he was interested in science, winning first place in a competition sponsored by the American Chemical Society as a teenager. Upon graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, he enlisted in the Navy, just as his father and grandfather had done previously, both of whom were Medal of Honor recipients. In June of 1958, McCandless earned a Bachelor of Science degree, graduating second in his class from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. After flight training in Pensacola, Florida, and Kingsville, Texas, McCandless got his Navy wings in March of 1960 after six successful solo landings aboard the USS Antietam. While enrolled in additional aviation courses in Memphis, Tennessee, he met Bernice Doyle. A few months later, they married and moved to Key West, Florida, where he received further instruction in the Douglas F4D-1 Skyray. He was assigned first to Fighter Squadron 101, the Grim Reapers, and, later, to Fighter Squadron 102, the Diamondbacks, until February 1964. He saw duty aboard the USS Forrestal (CVA-59) and, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the USS Enterprise (CVA(N)-65). He then served as an instrument flight instructor at the Naval Air Station in Oceana, Virginia. McCandless then reported for duty at the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps Unit at Stanford University where he earned a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1965 and immediately began pursuing his PhD in plasma physics. On April 4, 1966, McCandless left Stanford after finishing all his coursework but without completing a dissertation because, at age 28, he had been selected as the youngest member of NASA's Astronaut Group 5. Two months later, the McCandless' and their two young children, Bruce III and Tracy, arrived in Houston, Texas. Any hope he had of finishing his dissertation while being an astronaut was quickly dashed by the relentless schedule. Classroom training in subjects such as orbital mechanics, geology, space medicine and navigation were conducted three days a week. The remaining days were reserved for field trips to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the Kīlauea Iki Crater in Hawaii, the Pinacate Peaks of Mexico, and the volcanoes and ice fields of Iceland, to gain hands-on geology experience. The astronaut trainees also went to Panama and Nevada for survival training. The intensive schedule lasted until September of 1967. In October 1966, the new recruits received their first technical assignments. McCandless was assigned to the Experiments Branch. In February of 1967, the Experiments Branch became part of the Apollo Application Program (AAP). Around this time, McCandless tested the Astronaut Maneuvering Unit (AMU, also sometimes referred to as the M-509 Unit) in a simulator. Developed by the United States Air Force, the AMU was a rocket pack worn over the pressure suit. First used with less-than-ideal results by Eugene Cernan during the Gemini IX-A mission, NASA continued to seek ways to enable astronauts to move efficiently and safely in both the near-vacuum of space and inside increasingly spacious spacecraft. McCandless, NASA's Charles E. "Ed" Whitsett, Jr. and Walter W. "Bill" Bollendonk from Martin Marietta worked on improving this "jet pack" technology for almost two decades. The next iteration was the Automatically Stabilized Maneuvering Unit (ASMU), which proved to be a distinct improvement and was used during Skylab 3 and 4. The trio eventually won The Collier Trophy in 1984 for the final version, the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU). In 1969, McCandless served as Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) for the Apollo 10 and 11 missions. His is the voice you hear saying, "Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot," in response to Armstrong's announcement that the Eagle had indeed landed on the lunar surface. Subsequent years saw him perform the same role for Apollo 14 (1971) and Skylab 3 and 4 (both in 1973). Additionally, he, along with Russell "Rusty" Schweickart and Story Musgrave, served as the backup crew for Skylab 2. In 1978, McCandless was assigned to define and evaluate all the astronaut crew operational aspects of the Large Space Telescope, which included on-orbit maintenance. This required him to make countless drives in the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator (NBS) at Marshall Space Flight Center and the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) at Johnson Space Center. The giant pools simulated the microgravity environment of space and allowed him and others to practice repair and servicing techniques in orbit on a mock-up of the telescope, which was eventually renamed the Hubble Space Telescope. By the time Hubble deployed twelve years later, his work ensured that each of the five scientific instruments attached to it were either fully replaceable or serviceable by astronauts during spacewalks. Only the main wiring harness and the primary and secondary mirrors were not designed to be fixed while in space, which would become significant in subsequent years. In 1979, NASA began testing the newly renamed Manned Maneuvering Unit. Manufactured by Martin Marietta, it snugly fit over an astronaut's pressure suit like a backpack and featured 24 propulsion nozzles fueled by two aluminum nitrogen gas tanks wrapped in Kevlar. The wearer controlled movement with small handles on the armrests that required minimal hand gestures to operate. It was specially constructed to operate in the extreme temperature fluctuations of space. Initially, the MMU was slated for use on the first Shuttle mission to allow the astronauts to inspect and repair any damaged thermal tiles. Due to the brevity of the mission, the crew opted not to use it during their two days in orbit. The following year, McCandless was detailed to the Astronaut Office On-Orbit Branch. In addition to his work on the MMU and servicing Hubble, he also oversees developments on the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), an uncrewed booster rocket used to lift payloads to a higher orbit in space. On February 3, 1984, McCandless, together with Commander Vance Brand, Pilot Robert L. "Hoot" Gibson, and Mission Specialists Robert L. Stewart and Ronald E. McNair, launched aboard the Challenger on the 11th shuttle mission, STS-41-B. Four days later, McCandless became the first human to ever fly untethered in space, using an MMU. The jet-powered backpack allowed him to travel 4.8 miles a second and venture over 100 yards away from the orbiter. The spacewalk lasted approximately 6 hours. Two months later, the crew of STS-41-C successfully retrieved, repaired, and redeployed the Solar Maximum Mission Satellite while donning MMUs. McCandless was instrumental in the development of the plan to fix the satellite's altitude-control system and white-light coronagraph/polarimeter while still in orbit, thanks to the Trunnion Pin Attachment Device (TPAD). This was the first time a satellite repair was performed in space. The year concluded with McCandless being awarded patent number 4,483,639 for a connection system that simplified and eased the ways in which astronauts could transport and use tools in space without additional connectors. Called the "McTether," it worked easily with spacesuit-gloved hands and became a part of the standard tool kit on Shuttle missions. McCandless made his final trip into space with STS-31 on April 24, 1990. Also on board the Discovery were Commander Loren Shriver, Pilot Charles Bolden, Jr., and Mission Specialists Steven Hawley and Kathryn Sullivan. The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed into a low-Earth orbit, forever changing how we see the universe. The telescope weighs over 24,000 lbs. and was the largest payload to date. This was documented by an IMAX Cargo Bay Camera (ICBC) and a hand-held IMAX camera. This footage was used in the IMAX films "Destiny in Space" (1994) and "Hubble 3D" (2010). On August 31, 1990, Bruce retired from both the Navy and NASA. The very next day, he was on a plane to Munich, Germany, as a consultant for the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). He and eighteen other experts gathered to determine why the images from Hubble were blurry. The problem was determined to be the primary mirror, which was thought to be unrepairable while in space. The Hubble Space Telescope Strategy Panel formulated a plan to fix the primary mirror's spherical aberration (which was later done successfully during 1993's STS-61 mission). In November of 1990, he accepted a position at Martin Marietta Astronautics Group (in 1995, they merged with the Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin). During his fifteen years there, he was the Chief Scientist in Advanced Launch Systems. He worked on the Orbital Space Plane, the Space Launch Initiative, the Space Transportation Architecture Study, the Orbiter Electric Auxiliary Power Unit, the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) and the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV). He retired from Lockheed on March 31, 2005, but was retained on a consulting basis. Bruce McCandless II passed away in Los Angeles, California, on December 21, 2017, at the age of 80. Bruce McCandless II: Awards and Honors 1953 -- Southern California Chemistry Prize 1974 -- Exceptional Service Medal, NASA 1974 -- Victor A. Prather Award, American Astronautical Society 1974 -- American Expeditionary Service Medal 1974, April 18 -- National Defense Service Medal 1984 -- Victor A. Prather Award, American Astronautical Society 1984, March 13 -- Jackson, Mississippi, honorary citizen 1984, September 24 -- American Society of Cinematographers, honorary member 1985, January 30 -- Superior Service Medal, Department of Defense 1985, May 10 -- Collier Trophy, the National Aeronautic Association 1985, October 4 -- The National Air and Space Museum Trophy 1985, October 8 -- Exceptional Engineering Achievement Award, NASA 1986 -- Spirit of St. Louis Medal, American Society of Mechanical Engineers 1987 -- Haley Space Flight Award 1988 -- Legion of Merit 1990 -- Space Flight Medal, NASA 1991 -- Exceptional Service Medal, NASA 2003, March 27 -- Three Certificates of Merit, Lockheed Martin's Intellectual Property Review Board 2005 -- U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame induction 2012 -- Distinguished Graduate Award Medal, the United States Naval Academy.