![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/static01.nyt.com/packages/flash/multimedia/ICONS/transparent.png)
Bruce McCandless using a nitrogen-propelled manned maneuvering unit in February 1984 for the first untethered spacewalk.
NASA; thumbnail, NASA, 1990
Bruce McCandless
Died on December 21, 2017 at age 80
Mr. McCandless was the first person to fly untethered in space. His journey into the dark void above Earth was preserved in a famous photograph.
Notable Deaths 2017
Remembering Mary Tyler Moore, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lewis, David Rockefeller, Trisha Brown, Glen Campbell, Dick Gregory, Edith Windsor, Sam Shepard, Tom Petty and many others who died this year.