Bruce McCandless was the first person to complete an untethered spacewalk
In 1984, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II made history by being the first person to complete an untethered spacewalk. He used the Manned Maneuvering Unit, a propulsion unit that allowed people to make untethered extravehicular spacewalks at a distance from the shuttle.
This picture shows the moment when he reached a distance that was out of the space shuttle’s safety range. It was used on three separate missions but was decommissioned because the same tasks could be completed with much safer options such as manipulator’s arms.