Ed White trains for his historic spacewalk.
In this image Ed White is undergoing spacewalk training in the Manned Spacecraft Center Building 4. He is standing on a device which creates a cushion of air above a steel floor, simulating zero gravity conditions in two axis. He is practicing with his hand-held maneuvering unit. Astronauts now train for spacewalks in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (a specialized swimming pool) at the Johnson Space Center, which began operation in 1996. Prior to that, astronauts used the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator at Marshall Space Flight Center, which came into operation in 1968. The first astronaut to train for spacewalks in a pool was Buzz Aldrin on Gemini 12 in 1966. He trained in the pool of the McDonogh Boys School in Baltimore.
NASA Photo #65-H-1028.