INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
McDivitt, who commanded the Apollo 9 mission testing the first complete set of equipment to go to the moon, has died
He was 93.McDivitt was also the commander of 1965&s Gemini 4 mission, where his best friend and colleague Ed White made the first United
His photographs of White during the spacewalk became iconic images, AP reported.He passed on a chance to land on the moon and instead became
the space agency&s program manager for five Apollo missions after the Apollo 11 moon landing.McDivitt died Thursday in Tucson, Arizona, NASA
said Monday.In his first flight in 1965, McDivitt reported seeing &something out there& about the shape of a soda can flying outside his
People called it a UFO and McDivitt would later joke that he became &a world-renowned UFO expert.& Years later he figured it was just a
reflection of bolts in the window.McDivitt left NASA and the Air Force in 1972 for a series of private industry jobs, including president of
the railcar division at Pullman Inc
and a senior position at aerospace firm Rockwell International
He retired from the military with the rank of brigadier general.The post Astronaut James McDivitt, Apollo 9 commander, dies at 93 first
