Bruce McCandless
Bruce McCandless II is an American former naval officer and aviator, electrical engineer, and former NASA astronaut. During the first of his two Space Shuttle missions he made the first ever untethered free flight using the Manned Maneuvering Unit in 1984. McCandless was born on June 8, 1937, in Boston, Massachusetts. A third generation U.S. Navy officer, McCandless is the son of Bruce McCandless, and grandson of Willis W. Bradley, both decorated war heroes. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson Senior High School, Long Beach, California, in 1954. With his father having been awarded the Medal of Honor, McCandless was assured of being appointed to a military academy. In 1958, he received a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy, graduating second (behind future National Security Advisor and Iran?Contra affair conspirator John Poindexter) in a class of 899 that also included John McCain. During his professional career, he also received an M.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1965 and an M.B.A. from the University of Houston?Clear Lake in 1987. At the age of 28, McCandless was selected as the youngest member of NASA Astronaut Group 5 (labelled the \"Original Nineteen\" by John W. Young) in April 1966. According to space historian Matthew Hersch, McCandless and Group 5 colleague Don Lind were \"effectively treated... as scientist-astronauts\" (akin to those selected in the fourth and sixth groups) by NASA due to their substantial scientific experience, an implicit reflection of their mutual lack of the test pilot experience highly valued by Deke Slayton and other NASA managers at the time; this would ultimately delay their progression in the flight rotation.
Spaceflights:
No. Mission Position Time Duration
1 STS-41B MSP 03.02. - 11.02.1984 7d 23h 15m
2 STS-31 MSP 24.04. - 29.04.1990 5d 01h 16m
Total 13d 00h 31m
