NASA. LARGE FORMAT. HISTORIC MISSION STS-41-B. Bruce McCandl - Lot 158

NASA. LARGE FORMAT. HISTORIC MISSION STS-41-B. Bruce McCandless, the first man to perform a free-floating spacewalk. February 1984. One of the most spectacular photographs in the entire history of space exploration. Taken from the aft deck of the Challenger shuttle, it shows astronaut Bruce McCandless II performing the first untethered extravehicular activity using the legendary Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU). Suspended in absolute vacuum, he controls his movements with simple hand gestures that activate the nitrogen thrusters of his autonomous unit, while the shuttle almost disappears from view. The sense of isolation is striking: for the first time, a human being is moving alone through the vastness of the cosmos, guided solely by his machine. Of exceptional aesthetic power, this image has become one of the definitive icons of space photography and symbolizes the audacity of human exploration better than any other. Chromogenic print. Numbered on the front. Caption on a label on the back. 40.6 x 40.6 cm with margins.