America's first space walk – 45 years ago today

Ben Cosgrove says: "Forty-five years ago today, Ed White became the first American to "walk" in space, during the Gemini IV mission with crew mate and Command Pilot, James McDivitt. The photos from the walk still astound — but it's White's utterance during a playful exchange with McDivitt, when he's told he has to return to the spacecraft, that's truly haunting:

WHITE [laughing]: I'm not coming in … This is fun …

McDIVITT: Come on. Let's get back in here before it gets dark.

WHITE: It's the saddest moment of my life.

"White died a few years later, in the awful Apollo I fire that also killed Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee. Today's as good a day as any to remember a man who, for a little while, was the most famous — and the luckiest — guy in the galaxy."

Ed White's "marvelous romp" in the cosmos