Photo: Getty Images
Astronaut James McDivitt, who commanded two of NASA's most historic missions, has died at the age of 93, the Associated Press reports.
McDivitt served as the commander on the Apollo 9 mission, which tested the first complete set of equipment to go to the moon, in 1969, as well as the Gemini 4 mission, which saw his best friend and colleague Ed White become the first American astronaut to walk in space in 1965.
McDivitt is reported to have died in Tucson, Arizona on Monday (October 17), according to NASA officials via the AP.
The Chicago native had passed on the chance to land on the moon, instead serving as NASA's manager for five Apollo missions following the Apollo 11 moon landing.
McDivitt publicly acknowledged that the Apollo 9 mission, which orbited Earth and didn't travel any farther, was one of the lesser remembered space missions of NASA's program, specifically in comparison to the Apollo 11 moon landing, despite its own significance.
“I could see why they would, you know, it didn’t land on the moon. And so it’s hardly part of Apollo," McDivitt said via the AP. 'But the lunar module was ... key to the whole program.”
McDivitt, along with crewmates Rusty Schweickart and David Scott, completed the Apollo 9 mission, which successfully proved that people could live in the lightweight lunar lander, nicknamed Spider, if it could dock in orbit and its engines control the stack of the spacecraft.
“I looked at Rusty and he looked at me, and we said, ‘Oh my God! We’re actually going to fly something like this?’" McDivitt said. "So it was really chintzy. ... it was like cellophane and tin foil put together with Scotch tape and staples!”