198. [Apollo 9] THE FIRST APOLLO EVA: Russell Schweickart floating freely outside LM Spider, viewed from CSM Gumdrop's hatch David Scott, March 3-13, 1969 Printed 1969. Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS9-19-2996]. Numbered "NASA AS9-19-2999" in red in the top margin, with "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas). 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.) Historical context David Scott took this stunning photograph at the end of his stand up EVA in the open hatch of CSM Gumdrop. Russell Schweickart is floating freely in space, just holding extravehicular transfer handrails on the Lunar Module Spider. Note the reflection of his body, spacecraft and Earth in his gold-plated visor. "You're no longer inside something with a window looking out at a picture. Now you're out there and there are no limits, there are no boundaries. You're really out there, going 17,000 miles an hour, ripping through space, a vacuum. And there's not a sound. There's a silence the depth of which you've never experienced before, and that silence contrasts so markedly with the scenery you're seeing and with the speed which you know you're moving." —Russell Schweickart (Kelley, plate 145) Originally, Schweickart was scheduled to transfer from Spider to Gumdrop in a rescue simulation, testing extravehicular transfer between spacecraft in case the docking tunnel was unavailable. However, after experiencing space sickness earlier in the mission, he remained with Spider, instead evaluating the EVA handholds, which he found easy to manoeuvre with. Despite the adjusted plan, Mission Control deemed this the first successful in-space test of the Apollo spacesuit and PLSS—the only one before the Moon landing.