Edward Higgins White Edward Higgins White , II ( Lt Col , USAF ) ( November 14 , 1930 – January 27 , 1967 ) was an engineer , U . S . Air Force officer , and NASA astronaut . On June 3 , 1965 , he became the first American to " walk " in space . White died along with his fellow astronauts Virgil " Gus " Grissom and Roger B . Chaffee during prelaunch testing for the first manned Apollo mission at Cape Canaveral . He was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his flight in Gemini 4 and then awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor posthumously . Early years . White was born in San Antonio , Texas , where he attended school and became a member of the Boy Scouts of America . White ' s father , Edward H . White , Sr . , became a major general in the Air Force . After graduation from high school , he was accepted to the U . S . Military Academy at West Point , where in 1952 he earned his Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force . White then chose a commission with the U . S . Air Force and attended flight school , a course that takes just over a year . Following graduation from flight school , White was assigned to the 22nd Fighter Day Squadron at Bitburg Air Base , West Germany . He spent three and a half years in West Germany flying in F - 86 Sabre and F - 100 Super Sabre squadrons in the defense of NATO . In 1958 , White enrolled in the University of Michigan under Air Force sponsorship to study aeronautical engineering , where he earned his Master of Science degree in 1959 . Following graduation , White was selected to attend the U . S . Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base and was then assigned as a test pilot at the Aeronautical Systems Division at Wright - Patterson Air Force Base . During his career , White would log more than 3 , 000 flight hours with the Air Force , including about 2 , 200 hours in jets , and would ultimately attain the rank of lieutenant colonel . In 1953 , White married Patricia Finegan , whom he met while at West Point . The Whites would have two children , Edward White III ( born 15 September 1953 ) and Bonnie Lynn White ( born 15 May 1956 ) . White was a devout Methodist . NASA career . Project Gemini . White was one of nine men chosen as part of the second group of astronauts in 1962 . Within an already elite group , White was considered to be a high - flier by the management of NASA . He was chosen as Pilot of Gemini 4 , with Command Pilot James McDivitt . White became the first American to make a walk in space , on June 3 , 1965 . He found the experience so exhilarating that he was reluctant to terminate the EVA at the allotted time , and had to be ordered back into the spacecraft . While he was outside , a spare thermal glove floated away through the open hatch of the spacecraft , becoming an early piece of space debris in low - earth orbit , until it burned up upon re - entry into the Earth ' s atmosphere . There was a mechanical problem with the hatch mechanism , which made it difficult to open and to relatch , which added to the time constraint of the spacewalk , and could have threatened the lives of both men if McDivitt had been unable to get the hatch latched , as they could not re - enter the atmosphere with an unsealed hatch . White ' s next assignment after Gemini 4 was as the back - up for Gemini 7 Command Pilot Frank Borman . He was also named the astronaut specialist for the flight control systems of the Apollo Command / Service Module . By the usual procedure of crew rotation in the Gemini program , White would have been in line for a second flight as the Command Pilot of Gemini 10 in July 1966 , which would have made him the first of his group to fly twice . Project Apollo . In March 1966 he was selected as Senior Pilot ( second seat ) for the first manned Apollo flight , designated AS - 204 , along with Command Pilot Virgil " Gus " Grissom , who had flown in space on the Mercury 4 " Liberty Bell 7 " mission and as commander of the Gemini 3 " Molly Brown " mission , and Pilot Roger Chaffee , who had yet to fly into space . The mission , which the men named " Apollo 1 " in June , was originally planned for late 1966 ( perhaps concurrent with the last Gemini mission ) , but delays in the spacecraft development pushed the launch into 1967 . Death . Launch of Apollo 1 was planned for February 21 , 1967 , when the crew entered the spacecraft on January 27 , mounted atop its Saturn IB booster on Launch Pad 34 at Cape Kennedy , for a " plugs - out " test of the spacecraft , which included a rehearsal of the launch countdown procedure . Mid - way through the test , a fire broke out in the cabin , killing all three men . White ' s job in an emergency was to open the hatch , which he apparently tried to do ; his body was found in his center seat , with his arms reaching over his head toward the hatch . This was an impossible task , as the hatch opened into the cabin and was held in place by greater than atmospheric pressure . The fire increased the pressure to the point where the cabin wall ruptured , and the astronauts were killed by asphyxiation and smoke inhalation . The fire ' s ignition source was never determined , but their deaths were attributed to a wide range of lethal hazards in the early Apollo Command Module design and workmanship , and conditions of the test , including : the highly pressurized 100 % oxygen pre - launch atmosphere ; many wiring and plumbing flaws ; flammable materials used in the cockpit and the astronauts ' flight suits ; and the hatch which could not be opened quickly in an emergency . After the incident , these problems were fixed , and the Apollo program carried on successfully to reach its objective of landing men on the Moon . White was buried with full military honors at West Point Cemetery while Grissom and Chaffee are both buried in Section 3 ( GPS Coordinates : 38 . 873115 N , - 77 . 072755 W ) of Arlington National Cemetery . In 1997 , White was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor . White was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1993 and the National Aviation Hall of Fame on July 18 , 2009 . His wife Patricia remarried and continued to reside in Houston . On September 7 , 1983 she committed suicide after surgery earlier in the year to remove a tumor . Memorials . Schools . Many schools have been named in honor of Lt Colonel White : White in the movies . White was played by Steven Ruge in the 1995 film " Apollo 13 " and by Chris Isaak in the 1998 miniseries " From the Earth to the Moon " .