242 a
Scott captured this photograph from the open hatch of the CM Gumdrop as he had clambered partially outside for a stand-up EVA, still hooked to the spacecraft through a life support umbilical system.
Schweickart holds the Hasselblad camera in his left hand. His visor reflects the Earth and the docked CSM/LM spacecraft. He is standing in “golden slippers” on the front porch of the LM and wearing an EVA Mobility Unit (EMU) including a Portable Life Support System (PLSS) and an Oxygen Purge System (OPS) on his back. The EMU provided communications and oxygen as well as circulating water through the suit to keep the astronaut cool, eliminating the need for an umbilical connection to the spacecraft. A 25-foot-long nylon rope was the only connection that kept the astronaut from drifting away. Schweickart’s spacewalk was the only EVA scheduled before the lunar landing, and thus the only opportunity to test in space the EMU which would allow astronauts to walk on the Moon.
From the mission transcript during the EVA:
073:09:19 Scott (Gumdrop): Why don’t you say hello to the camera or something?
073:09:23 Schweickart (PLSS): Hello there, camera. Boy, is this great!
242 b
“Far above the Earth on the fourth day of the mission, Scott stands in the Command Module’s open hatch and gazes toward the as-yet-untested LM, now mated to the Command Module. The photograph was taken by Schweickart, who had emerged from the craft earlier for an EVA to test the lunar spacesuit” (Mason, p. 152).
“You’re no longer inside something with a window looking out at a picture. Now you’re out there and there are no limits, there are no boundaries. You’re really out there, going 17,000 miles an hour, ripping through space, a vacuum. And there’s not a sound. There’s a silence the depth of which you’ve never experienced before, and that silence contrasts so markedly with the scenery you’re seeing and with the speed which you know you’re moving.”
Russell Schweickart (Kelley, plate 145)