James McDivitt James Alton McDivitt ( Brig Gen , USAF Ret . ) ( born June 10 , 1929 ) is a former NASA astronaut who flew in the Gemini and Apollo programs . He commanded the Gemini 4 flight during which Edward H . White performed the first US space walk , and later the Apollo 9 flight which was the first manned flight test of the Lunar Module and the complete set of Apollo flight hardware . He later became Manager of Lunar Landing Operations and was the Apollo Spacecraft Program Manager from 1969 to 1972 . Education . McDivitt graduated from Kalamazoo Central High School , Kalamazoo , Michigan ; Jackson Junior College ( now known as Jackson College ) , Jackson , Michigan , and received a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Michigan ( graduated first in class ) in 1959 and an honorary doctorate in astronautical science from the University of Michigan in 1965 ; honorary doctor of science , Seton Hall University , 1969 ; honorary doctor of science , Miami University ( Ohio ) , 1970 ; honorary doctor of laws , Eastern Michigan University , 1975 . Organizations / honors . McDivitt is a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots , Conquistadores del Cielo , Tau Beta Pi , and Phi Kappa Phi , McDivitt was awarded two NASA Distinguished Service Medal s ; NASA Exceptional Service Medal ; two Air Force Distinguished Service Medal s ; four Distinguished Flying Crosses ; five Air Medal s ; the Chong Moo Medal from South Korea ; the USAF Air Force Systems Command Aerospace Primus Award ; the Arnold Air Society JFK Trophy ; the Sword of Loyola ; the Michigan Wolverine Frontiersman Award ; and USAF Astronaut Wings . United States Air Force . McDivitt joined the United States Air Force in 1951 and retired with the rank of Brigadier General in 1972 . He flew 145 combat missions during the Korean War in F - 80 s and F - 86 s . He is a graduate of the U . S . Air Force Test Pilot School and the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot course and served as an experimental test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base , California . He has logged over 5 , 000 flight hours , including flying as a chase pilot for Robert M . White ' s historic X - 15 flight on July 17 , 1962 , in which White reached an altitude of and became the first to be awarded astronaut wings based on the USAF definition of . NASA career . Project Gemini . McDivitt was selected as an astronaut by NASA in September 1962 as part of Astronaut Group 2 . He was chosen as Command Pilot of Gemini 4 , becoming the first US astronaut to command his first spaceflight . Only three other Gemini astronauts , from this group , were chosen to command their first flights : Frank Borman ( Gemini 7 ) , Neil Armstrong ( Gemini 8 ) , and Elliot See . ( See was killed in the crash of a T - 38 trainer jet three months before his Gemini 9 mission . ) After Gemini , only two other rookies commanded their first flights : Gerald Carr ( Skylab 4 ) and Joe Engle ( Space Shuttle STS - 2 ) . McDivitt is also the first Roman Catholic to fly into space . McDivitt commanded the Gemini 4 mission with Edward H . White as his copilot . Launched on June 3 , 1965 , the mission lasted four days and made 66 orbits , allowing the United States to come close to the early space endurance record of five days set by the Soviet Vostok 5 flight . The first objective was to attempt the first space rendezvous with the spacecraft ' s spent Titan II launch vehicle ' s upper stage . This was not successful ; McDivitt was unable to get closer than what he estimated to be . Several factors worked against him . There were depth - perception problems ( his and White ' s visual estimates of the distance differed , variously longer or shorter than each other at different times ) . The orbital mechanics of rendezvous were not yet well understood by NASA engineers . Also , the stage was venting its remaining propellant , which kept pushing it around in different directions relative to the spacecraft . McDivitt finally broke off the rendezvous attempt in order to save fuel and preserve the second , more important objective , which was for White to perform the first United States " space walk " . McDivitt controlled the capsule ' s attitude and photographed White during the " walk " . The hatch on Gemini 4 , through which White exited to make his walk , was prone to problems with the latch mechanism gears coming unmeshed , making it difficult to open and relatch the hatch . McDivitt had spent some time before the flight with a McDonnell engineer , improvising a technique of forcing the gears to mesh by inserting the fingers inside the mechanism . The hatch was difficult to open and also to relatch during the flight , but McDivitt was able to get it working both times , with his hands in his pressurized space suit gloves . If he had not been able to get the hatch latched after the space walk , both men would have most certainly been killed during re - entry . On the second day , over Hawaii , while White was asleep , McDivitt happened to see an unidentified flying object , which he described as looking " like a beer can or a pop can , and with a little thing like maybe like a pencil or something sticking out of it . " He got a camera and took a few photographs of it , but did not have time to properly set exposure or focus properly . He believes that since it was visible to him , it must have been in an orbit close to that of his spacecraft , probably a piece of ice or Mylar insulation having broken off of it . Word of the " UFO photos " reached the press by the time the flight splashed down , and one eager reporter waited for the Gemini 4 photos to be processed . He found one with a cluster of three or four images that looked like disc - shaped objects with tails , which became known as the " tadpole " photo . McDivitt has identified these as reflections of bolts in the multipaned windows . Gordon Cooper wrote in his memoirs that as far as he knows , it is the only officially reported account of a UFO in any of the Mercury , Gemini or Apollo missions . Project Apollo . In April 1966 , McDivitt , along with Astronaut Group 3 astronauts David Scott and Rusty Schweickart were named as members of the backup crew for Gus Grissom ' s first manned Apollo mission Apollo 1 , flying only the Apollo Command / Service Module in Earth orbit . In December , they were replaced as backups with the crew of a cancelled second mission and were promoted to prime crew of a new second mission flying both the Command / Service Module and the Lunar Module . They were training for this mission when tragedy struck on January 27 , 1967 : A cabin fire killed Grissom ' s crew and brought a 22 - month suspension of manned Apollo flights . After the Apollo 1 fire , plans resumed for McDivitt ' s crew to fly the Lunar Module mission , which would have been Apollo 8 in December 1968 . But the Lunar Module wasn ' t ready in time , so NASA decided to make Apollo 8 a circumlunar flight of the Command / Service Module , flown by Frank Borman , Jim Lovell , and William Anders . McDivitt ' s 10 - day Earth orbital LM test became Apollo 9 , launched on March 3 , 1969 . After Apollo 9 , McDivitt became Manager of Lunar Landing Operations in May 1969 , and led a team that planned the lunar exploration program and redesigned the spacecraft to accomplish this task . In August 1969 , he became Manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program and was the program manager for Apollo 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 and 16 . After leaving the Apollo Program he was offered the opportunity to be the Shuttle Program Director , but elected to leave NASA to pursue a career in business . Post - NASA career . McDivitt retired from the USAF and left NASA in June 1972 , to take the position of Executive Vice - President , Corporate Affairs for Consumers Power Company . In March 1975 , he joined Pullman , Inc . as Executive Vice - President and a Director . In October 1975 he became President of the Pullman Standard Division . In January 1981 he joined Rockwell International where was the Senior Vice President , Government Operations and International at the time of his retirement . , Washington , D . C . He retired in 1995 . Source : A NASA biography page In the 1998 miniseries " From the Earth to the Moon " McDivitt was played by Conor O ' Farrell .