One of 19 people selected by NASA to become astronauts in April 1966, Mr. McCandless, a former United States Navy captain, would play a role in Mr. Armstrong’s famed moonwalk only three years later.
Mr. McCandless, in mission control, was one voice the world heard communicating with Mr. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during their Apollo 11 mission. At one point, Mr. Armstrong remarked that their view of the moon was “really spectacular” and “worth the price of the trip.”
About 15 years before he would roam through space himself, Mr. McCandless replied, “Well, there are a lot of us down here that would be willing to come along.”
Mr. McCandless would spend another decade helping to develop the technology — called “manned maneuvering units” — that would allow him to float free in space at the age of 46.
That 1984 mission had various technical objectives, but it was Mr. McCandless’s inaugural spacewalk that captured the hearts and minds of those about 170 miles below. The Times described Mr. McCandless as “a puffy white gingerbread man” floating above the continental United States.
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