Edward Higgins White II (born November 14, 1930, in San Antonio, Texas, died January 27, 1967, at Cape Canaveral) was an American astronaut and United States Air Force lieutenant colonel, the first American to walk in outer space.
In 1952 he graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and in 1959 he completed further studies at the University of Michigan. He underwent flight training in Florida and Texas, and in 1959 finished test‑pilot training at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He then served as a test pilot at an Air Force base in Ohio, continuing in that role until he was selected in 1962 for NASA’s astronaut corps.
From June 3 to 7, 1965, together with James McDivitt, he flew the Gemini 4 spacecraft. During this mission he became the first American—and, after Alexei Leonov, the second human—to leave his spacecraft and conduct a spacewalk. Using a hand‑held maneuvering unit, he moved around outside the capsule in open space; during the excursion he lost one of his gloves, which remained for many years as a piece of orbital debris before most likely burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.
White died on January 27, 1967, in the cabin fire of Apollo 1 on the launch pad at Cape Kennedy, together with astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Roger Chaffee. The United States Congress posthumously awarded him the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, and the Association of Space Explorers later granted him the Universal Astronaut Insignia for orbital flight number 19.
