Ed White: podcast appearances and interviews

Edward Higgins White II was an American aeronautical engineer, United States Air Force officer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. He graduated from West Point in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science degree and was assigned to the 22nd Fighter Day Squadron at Bitburg Air Base in West Germany. There, he flew the F-86 Sabre and F-100 Super Sabre fighters. In 1958, he enrolled at the University of Michigan to study aeronautical engineering, earning his Master of Science degree in 1959. White received test pilot training at Edwards Air Force Base and was subsequently assigned as a test pilot for the Aeronautical Systems Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Selected as one of the second group of NASA astronauts known as the 'Next Nine,' he participated in the Gemini and Apollo programs. White served as pilot of Gemini 4 alongside command pilot James McDivitt, and on June 3, 1965, became the first American to walk in space. He was later assigned as senior pilot of the Apollo 1 mission. White's career was tragically cut short when he died in a fire during pre-launch testing for Apollo 1 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 27, 1967, along with astronauts Virgil Grissom and Roger Chaffee. He was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his Gemini 4 flight and was posthumously honored with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.