First Untethered Space Walk February 3, 1984

He floats free suspended above the Earth balanced between the Dark above the blue below

He sits in the hand of the universe weightless as a feather on the breath of heaven

A billion voices lie below but here his breathing is the only earthbound sound

The universe sweeps around him with the sounds of atoms stars galaxies in wavelengths he is not tuned to.

Someday we all will hear the birth and death of stars of galaxies colliding and maybe just maybe the voice born on another planet

But today only he floats, suspended between the light and dark of the universe the first of many who follow

Courage took the first step hope floated out into tomorrow Astronaut Bruce McCandless was the first he wasn’t the last

Now the real work begins