Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

Exploring the Unknown 317
of the spacecraft with my back and the back of my head. I was faced away from the
spacecraft, and I just drifted right up against it and just very lightly contacted it.
I rebounded off. As long as the pushoffs are slow, there just isn’t any tendency to
get in an uncontrollable attitude.
McDivitt
It seemed Ed did hit it pretty hard at one time. I thinly that was after he pushed
off violently; he went out and it seemed, he came back and bashed it pretty hard.
I remember a pretty solid thump. It seemed it was over the right-hand hatch or
just right behind -- .
White
I know a couple of times I kicked off with my feet, and I think I know the time
you are talking about. I came in with my foot. It wasn’t so much the contact with
myself --.
McDivitt
What did you do? Contact and push off?
White
I contacted and pushed with my foot.
McDivitt
I heard a big thump and I think I called you at this time to take it easy.
White
I believe that was on the front end of the R and R Section on my side where you
couldn’t see me.
[4-39]
McDivitt
It was a position that I couldn’t see.
White
One of the pictures that I saw last night in the movies, I think, was made at that
time. I was coming in fairly rapidly and I wanted to get back out, so I kicked off
again with my foot fairly hard. It was a very good kick. I felt that I certainly could
have controlled myself without the gun out there if I had just some type of very
insignificant hand-holds or something that I could have held onto. I believe that
I could have gone on back to the adapters with a minimum of several hand-holds
to go back there, going from one to the other. I was actually looking for some type
of hand-holds out there. I remember that the only one that I saw was the stub
antenna on the nose of the spacecraft. I could see the ceramic covering over it, I
believe it was ceramic, or some kind of covering over it.
McDivitt
Yes, it’s white.