Chilling story behind the ‘scariest photo ever taken in space’

A lone man floating high above the Earth with nothing between himself and the void of space but his suit, a soul adrift in the infinite sea.

That's the picture taken by astronaut Robert Gibson from the Challenger Space Shuttle on 7 February, 1984, (the craft would tragically be destroyed two years later with all aboard dead) as he captured the image of Bruce McCandless II making history.

Sometimes described as the 'scariest photo ever taken in space' for the way it depicts a human being completely cut off from the safety of the planet or spacecraft, the image depicts the first ever untethered space walk.

Until that point, every astronaut who had gone for a space walk had been secured to their ship in some way, but this time McCandless was out there with nothing but the equipment he was testing to get him back to safety.

While in space on his first mission, the astronaut tested the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), a propulsion system astronauts could use while out on spacewalks, and to do that he had to be untethered from the space shuttle.

All alone up high above that blue marble. (NASA)

Fortunately the device worked, otherwise it would have been quite a task to get him back to the Challenger.

Recalling the moment he stepped out and performed the first untethered space walk, NASA astronaut McCandless told The Guardian in 2015 all about the experience.

He said: "I don’t like those overused lines 'slipped the surly bonds of Earth', but when I was free from the shuttle, they felt accurate.

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"It was a wonderful feeling, a mix of personal elation and professional pride: it had taken many years to get to that point.

"Several people were sceptical it would work, and with 300 hours of flying practice, I was over-trained. My wife was at mission control, and there was quite a bit of apprehension.

"I wanted to say something similar to Neil [Armstrong] when he landed on the moon, so I said, 'It may have been a small step for Neil, but it’s a heck of a big leap for me'. That loosened the tension a bit.

"I’d been told of the quiet vacuum you experience in space, but with three radio links saying, 'How’s your oxygen holding out?', 'Stay away from the engines!', 'When’s my turn?' it wasn’t that peaceful."

McCandless completed his spacewalk in six hours and 45 minutes as he moved in space alongside the shuttle, saying that he wasn't aware of the great speeds at which he was travelling as the shuttle was moving alongside him.

As for the photo, the astronaut said it was 'beautiful' and he felt that the stark image of himself high above the world could help others imagine what it would be like.

"It’s also one of its attractions: my anonymity means people can imagine themselves doing the same thing," McCandless explained.

"At visitor centres, they often have life-sized cardboard versions with the visor cut out, so people can peep through. Like Neil said in 1969, I was representing mankind up there."