Bruce McCandless 2

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.