Edward Higgins White II
Astronaut

Date of Birth: November 14, 1930
Place of Birth: San Antonio, TX
Died: January 27, 1967
Cause of Death: Killed in the Apollo 1 fire
Joined NASA: September 17, 1962
Space Flights: 1
Time in Space: 4 days, 1 hour, 56 minutes
Number of EVA's: 1 (first EVA by an American)
Total EVA Time: 36 minutes
MISSION ASSIGNMENTS
Gemini 4
June 3-7, 1965
Assignment: Pilot
Flight Duration: 4 days, 1 hour, 56 minutes

Gemini 7
Assignment: Back-up Command Pilot

Apollo 1
Assignment: Senior Pilot

HIGHLIGHTS

  • B.Sc.,Aeronautical Engineering, West Point, 1952
    M.Sc., Aeronautical Engineering, Univ. of Michigan, 1959

  • Received USAF pilots wings in 1953 and was assigned to Germany.

  • Graduate of the USAF Experimental Test Pilot School, Edwards AFB, California, 1959.

  • Assigned to Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio, as a test pilot until selection by NASA.

  • 1963, assigned to Flight Control Systems for Gemini.

  • 1965, became the first American to walk in space during the Gemini 4 mission, spending 21 minutes of his 36 minute EVA outside the space craft.

  • 1966, originally the Back-up Command Pilot for Gemini 7, he was reassigned as the Senior Pilot for the first manned Apollo mission.

  • 1967, Ed White was killed, along with crewmates Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, in the Apollo 1 fire at Kennedy Space Center. The official cause of death was asphyxiation.

  • He was buried with full military honors at West Point.