Iconic Moment, Iconic Photo
The Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) debuted on February 7, 1984. Previous spacewalkers had relied on tethers to remain connected to the Shuttle, but the MMU offered the capability for crews to venture beyond the cargo bay and conduct tasks away from the spacecraft. Robert Gibson captured this iconic image of McCandless from Challenger’s crew cabin, and it remains one of NASA’s most requested images. Indeed, this iconic image of the NASA astronaut “free-flying” in space is now one of the most recognizable and celebrated photographs in space exploration history.
