BRUCE MCCANDLESS, LOCKHEED MARTIN SPACE SYSTEMS: On February 7th, 1984, we came to the scheduled time for the first space walk on the 10th space shuttle mission. That was my opportunity to go out into space and to make the first untethered test flights on the man maneuvering unit. I had been working for many, many years in developing these units and had numerous vacuum chamber runs and was very pleased to be able to go out and do so.</s>SUSAN REED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Astronaut Bruce McCandless became history's first human satellite, soaring on his own 300 feet from the shuttle, aided by a Buck Rogers-style jet backpack. McCandless, who spent 10 years developing the man maneuvering unit, moved cautiously at first then revved up his joystick controls. He had nothing but praise for the backpack.</s>MCCANDLESS: This is neat.</s>MCCANDLESS: We had also gone to excruciating levels of detail in testing, so I was very comfortable.</s>MCCANDLESS: It proved to us that, if we needed to, we could use a maneuvering unit or a similar device to stabilize satellites for retrieval,; to inspect the outside of the orbiter or its space station, which is currently under assembly; and to make certain level of repairs on those things.
CNN 20: First Untethered Space Walk, February 7, 1984