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| - On Oct. 14, 2024, an X account claimed a photo showed an astronaut performing the first spacewalk without a safety tether linked to a spacecraft.
"This iconic photograph is still considered one of the most-terrifying space photos to date," the caption read, in part. The image had been viewed more than 325,000 times, as of this writing.
The X account added that it showed Bruce McCandless II floating "completely untethered in space with nothing but his Manned Maneuvering Unit keeping him alive."
This claim was, in fact, true. McCandless was, indeed, the first astronaut to perform an untethered spacewalk on Feb. 7, 1984. The picture was captured during the STS-41B shuttle mission that saw the first untethered spacewalks carried out by Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart, using the manned maneuvering unit.
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day posted the original photo to its website on Feb. 9, 2020. The caption read:
Explanation: What would it be like to fly free in space? At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce McCandless II was living the dream -- floating farther out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), astronaut McCandless, pictured, was floating free in space. McCandless and fellow NASA astronaut Robert Stewart were the first to experience such an "untethered space walk" during Space Shuttle mission 41-B in 1984. The MMU worked by shooting jets of nitrogen and was used to help deploy and retrieve satellites. With a mass over 140 kilograms, an MMU is heavy on Earth, but, like everything, is weightless when drifting in orbit. The MMU was later replaced with the SAFER backpack propulsion unit.
In 2022, Snopes examined a similar photograph of McCandless; however, on that occasion the image had been digitally altered to enhance Earth's snow-capped peaks to make it look like he was floating over a mountain range.
As part of its 50-year celebration of spacewalking, NASA published other photos of the first untethered spacewalk. The one below, for example showed McCandless "in the midst of the first 'field' tryout of a nitrogen-propelled backpack device" — the MMU.
(NASA)
Another image showed astronaut Robert Stewart using his hands to control his movement in space while using the MMU as part of extravehicular activity a few meters from the cabin of the space shuttle Challenger.
"Stewart is centered in a background of clouds and Earth in this view of his EVA. He is floating without tethers attaching him to the Shuttle," NASA wrote.
(NASA)
In 2023, Snopes also investigated a video widely shared on social media that showed McCandless' 1984 spacewalk. NASA shared the silent video of the walk to YouTube on Dec. 22, 2017, with a description that read:
On Feb. 7, 1984, during the Space Shuttle Challenger's STS-41B mission, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II made the first, untethered, free flight spacewalk in the Manned Maneuvering Unit.
Snopes' archives contributed to this report.
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