An extraordinary image that shows an astronaut without ties floating freely in space
circulates on social networks and many users have doubted the veracity of the photo and consider it a montage with a view to impressing.
Despite all the questions, the image is real according to NASA.
One Twitter user, who drew attention to the image, wrote: "Insane photo of astronaut Bruce McCandless II, the first person to fly untethered in space."
However,
several were quick to call the photo "nonsense" and claimed it was unreal
.
However,
the image that stirred up speculation that it was falsely created is real.
Story of the photo of the astronaut floating in space
The image, which has also been shared on Facebook in November 2021, shows an astronaut who
ventured at least 100 meters from the orbiter and was at least 105 kilometers above Earth
.
The Facebook post shared on November 4, 2021, claimed that the image is "arguably one of the best astronaut-related photos ever taken!"
Although on the web they dismissed it as incredible or said it was Photoshop, the event took place in 1984.
Bruce McCandless in space
It was the STS-41-B mission, the tenth that integrated the Space Transportation System (STS) program and the fourth of the Challenger shuttle.
One of the objectives of this mission, in addition to the launch of two satellites, was
to carry out a space walk using a jetpack, without tethers.
Bruce McCandless, the man in the photo, was a retired United States Navy captain and was one of 19 astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966. After a series of test maneuvers in and above the compartment of payload from the Challenger shuttle, McCandless performed a free flight of 45 minutes at a distance of more than one hundred meters away from the ship.
That February 7, 1984,
McCandless made the first spacewalk that did not use restrictive or umbilical tethers.
The astronaut, who became famous for this image, died in 2017 in California.
Bruce McCandless.
He passed away in 2017,.
What did NASA say about untethered spacewalks?
According to a NASA statement, McCandless used the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) on the STB-41B.
Both NASA and the Martin Marietta Corporation were awarded the Collier Trophy in 1984 for developing the device and for rescuing three disabled satellites, with special recognition to McCandless and Charles E Whitsett Jr of NASA and Walter W Bollendonk of Martin Marietta.
The mission in which Bruce McCandless participated was aimed at recovering satellites.
The award-winning manned maneuvering unit used in 1984 was designed specifically for satellite rescue
, unlike previous missions of this type, designed for experimental missions.
In that year, the MMU allowed some astronauts to maneuver in outer space, outside of spacecraft and free of any tether cables.
NASA confirmed that while flight is the primary function, life support is also the most careful.
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