James “Jim” McDivitt, a former astronaut who commanded NASA’s first spacewalk during the Gemini 4 mission and later passed on a chance to land on the Moon to become program manager for five Apollo missions, died Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. McDivitt was 93 years old.
For an astronaut who played a pivotal role in America’s first spacewalk during Gemini 4 in 1965, James Alton McDivitt showed little outward sign of budding genius in his youth. The retired Air Force brigadier general and two-time space traveler instead discovered his lifelong love of aviation amid the horrors of aerial combat.
McDivitt sits for an official NASA portrait. At the time, he was an Air Force colonel; he ultimately retired as a brigadier general. (Credit: U.S. Air Force)
U.S. Air Force
Born in Chicago, Illinois, on June 10, 1929, McDivitt was a son of an electrical engineer and progeny of a staunchly Roman ...
