At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce McCandless II was farther out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), astronaut McCandless, on this picture, 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 works by shooting jets of nitrogen and has since been 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 replaced with the SAFER backpack propulsion unit.
Image Credit: STS-41B, NASA
Explanation from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120101.html
Just seen the picture of the astronaut floating free in space with no tether line over the Earth about 140 meters away from the shuttle how cool is that that would be the best vacation ever or the best time ever just to be able to be floating in space with nothing holding you back that is just the most awesomest thing to imagine this is awesome to be able to see all of us whoever put this out there thank you
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