Astronaut Bruce McCandless II, First to 'Float Free' in Space, Dies Age 80

Astronaut Bruce McCandless II, the first person to perform an “untethered, free flight spacewalk in the Manned Maneuvering Unit,” passed away, aged 80, on December 21, 2017.

According to NASA’s profile, McCandless was born on June 8, 1937, in Boston, Massachusetts, attended the U.S. Naval Academy with John McCain, and joined NASA in 1966 after serving in the Navy. He was the mission control communicator to the Apollo 11 crew during the 1969 moonwalk. McCandless was also part of the crew on Space Shuttle Discovery’s STS-31 mission, which deployed the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990. Credit: NASA via Storyful