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Jim McDivitt was picked by NASA to be an astronaut as part of thre"New Nine", the second group afeter the first seven, in 1961. His first spaceflight was aboard Gemini IV, as the rookie commander on thefirst long-duration flight (four days.) The highlight of the mission was the iconic first American spacewalk by Jim's neighbor and lifelong buddy ,(and fellow New-Niner) Ed White. The memorable photos and video were shot by McDivitt, standing up in his seat with his hatch open. McDivitt also flew as commander of Apollo 9, the shakedown cruise of the LM, in Earth orbit for a lunar-landing length 10-day flight. Apollo 9 was largely overlooked and underdocumented because Apollo 8 had already gone to the moon, minus the LM, four months before. Shortly afterward, he became Manager of Lunar Landing Operations, and then Manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program for all subsequent landings except 17. He retired from NASA and the USAF as Brigadier General in June 1972 at age 43. Never looking back, he became successful in the business world as a consumer power company, Pullman railcar and finally Rockwell aerospace executive. He also serves on many boards of directors. Spacefest will be McDivitt's American autograph show debut SPACEFEST 2009 AUTOGRAPH FEES (Fri-Sat)
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