"Spacewalk from Hell": Eugene Cernan performing the dramatic second US spacewalk, 3-7 June 1966

Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based paper, printed 1966, with NASA caption numbered "S-66-38515" (NASA MSC) and "A KODAK PAPER" watermark on verso, 19 x 25,4 cm, capillary cracks in the left upper corner, small margin tear

A very rare photograph of Eugene Cernan in the dark void of outer space (the only one released by NASA after the mission), linked to the Gemini spacecraft by the EVA umbilical cord. This second US spacewalk proved to be very difficult and Cernan’s visor fogged, preventing him from using the AMU (Astronaut Maneuvering Unit).
In The Last Man on the Moon (1999), Chapter 13, "The Spacewalk from Hell," he wrote, "I felt as if I was wrestling an octopus. The umbilical cavorted with a life of its own, twirling like a ribbon, trying to trap me like a cord winding around a window shade."

Stafford later said (in the 1999 documentary Mission Impossible: Gemini) that there was a real concern that Cernan would not be able to get back into the capsule. As it would not have been acceptable for Stafford to cut Cernan loose in orbit, he stated that the plan was to make re-entry with the astronaut still attached by his umbilical, resulting in the death of both men.

Read more: airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/almost-blind-and-completely-exhausted-gene-cernans-disastrous-gemini-spacewalk

From the mission transcript when the photograph was taken:
049:44:08 Stafford: Okay, I can see you in the darkness while we’re here and appears ... looking real good. Let me know when you get near those thrusters.
049:44:12 Cernan: Yes. I can see you in the cockpit. I’m overhead; you’re real good. [...]
049:45:15 Cernan: Boy, what a beautiful Spacecraft, Golly’ [...]
049:45:22 Cernan: I’m trying to get out in front here where I can get a good evaluation of pod and this umbilical. [...]
049:47:13 Cernan: I ‘m right on top of your window.
049:47:14 Stafford: I’ve got a picture of you. [...]
049:47:20 Cernan: The only control I have is the umbilical and, of course, the shorter it is, the better control I’ve got.
049:47:27 Stafford: Okay. We’ve got 20 minutes of sunrise and 30 minutes to sunset. [...]
049:48:06 Cernan: Okay. I’m at the end of the umbilical. [...]
049:48:12 Stafford: Yes, you look like a real snake out there. [...]
049:48:44 Cernan: I want to see what I can do around the nose here.
049:48: 46 Stafford: Okay.
049:49:01 Cernan: Oh, boy. All I did was twitch my fingers and I gave myself a torque that would’nt quit. [...]