00:00Gemini 4, the moment that changed everything June 1965. Astronauts James McDivitt and Ed
00:09White, the Soviets, had already conducted a spacewalk. The USA had to catch up. Ed White
00:17opened the hatch and floated out. The first American EVA or extravehicular activity,
00:24what looks romantic, was actually absolute chaos. White moved through space with a small gas gun,
00:33barely controllable. Even worse, getting back in became dangerously difficult.
00:39The hatch could only be closed with force. Here, NASA learned a hard lesson. Working in space is
00:46extremely exhausting. Apollo astronauts would later have to work for hours on the moon.
00:53Gemini showed for the first time how brutal that could be physically. During Jared
00:59Isaacman's Polaris mission, the crew also had a similar problem with closing the hatch.
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