View the full graphic comic here. 

PANEL 1:
A man in a puffy white astronaut suit floats in space above planet Earth far below. An American flag patch is visible on his left arm.

Text reads: On June 3, 1965, astronaut Ed White became the first American to perform a spacewalk.

PANEL 2:
A close up of Ed White’s face inside his helmet shows his smile and he says, “I feel like a million dollars.”

Text reads: He had so much fun, reporters wondered if he had experienced “space intoxication”. 

PANEL 3:
White spacewalks away from the Gemini capsule and replies, “Not yet” to the command, “They want you to come back in!” A partial view of Earth is visible far below. 

PANEL 4:
A busy street scene with cars and a large billboard featuring a smoking man wearing goggles. A newspaper kiosk at the corner of an intersection holds a copy of the Daily News bearing the headline, "Astro Oscar, Gemini Pix Out of This World”.

Text reads: News of the accomplishment spread across the globe and the exuberant astronaut became a national hero.

PANEL 5:
Inside a command center, three men wearing headphones study screen monitors while making notes.

Text reads: But NASA found that spacewalking was a lot harder than they’d thought. The spacewalkers that followed White were not so successful.

PANEL 6:
Three astronaut trainees test zero gravity inside NASA’s spacewalk simulator.

Text reads: Moving in zero gravity was unpredictable. The astronauts flailed and spun and sometimes lost control altogether.

PANEL 7:
A close up of an astronaut trainee’s face inside his spacesuit helmet shows sweat dripping down his face. 

Text reads: All that movement left them dangerously overheated. And when their visors fogged up, they couldn't see.

PANEL 8:
Two engineers are seated in front of switchboards wearing headphones, one analyzing a monitor. Another man stands to gaze at the bright Moon beyond a large launch pad.

Text reads: The astronauts had to master this skill to go to the Moon. But no one was quite sure how.

PANEL 9:
A trainee with a full astronaut suit and helmet is submerged in a swimming pool with air bubbles floating to the surface.

Text reads: Then someone suggested that astronauts might train underwater.

PANEL 10:
Text reads: A close up of astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s face inside his spacesuit helmet. 

Text reads: Most rejected the idea, but Buzz Aldrin was interested.

PANEL 11:
With a snorkel mask and an oxygen tank, Aldrin swims underwater with a pool of blue-and-yellow-striped fish.

Text reads: The Korean War veteran with a PhD from MIT was also a scuba diver. He knew that you had to move delicately and resist fighting the current.

PANEL 12:
Aldrin is imagined with full scuba gear, including foot fins, out in the space far above the Earth.

Text reads: He thought the same techniques might apply in space.

PANEL 13:
A huge indoor pool. Four men wearing spacesuits and fins are submerged underwater alongside a space capsule.

Text reads: So NASA rented a pool at a boy’s school in Baltimore. Aldrin spent over twelve hours training in neutral buoyancy—that seemingly weightless state in which a body neither rises nor sinks.

PANEL 14:
Out in space, the Gemini 12 capsule with the U.S. flag orbits high above the Earth.

Text reads: He tested his hypothesis in November of 1966.

PANEL 15: 
Aldrin in astronaut suit emerges from the Gemini 12.

Text reads: Aldrin was the last spacewalker of the Gemini program that preceded Apollo.

PANEL 16:
Connected with cables to the capsule, Aldrin spacewalks, Earth far below him.

Text reads: Aldrin says, “This is a little bit harder than it was in the water.”

PANEL 17:
A profile shot of Aldrin in a spacesuit shows him smiling.

Text reads: But not so much harder! Aldrin’s spacewalking was a huge success.

PANEL 18:
An illustration of a surging ocean wave in blue-green color against a black background. A whirled galaxy of white stars sits inside the barrel of the wave.

Text reads: He had taken the lessons of the sea and applied them to space. All future spacewalkers would train underwater.

PANEL 19:
With the Apollo 11 lander and a four-wheeled rover in the distance, Aldrin in full spacesuit and a large backpack walks on the surface of the Moon. 
Text reads: As for Aldrin, he would soon become famous for a different kind of walk.