Edward White - Definition and Overview

• See also Edward Douglass White (1845-1921), a former Chief Justice of the United States.
• Edward White 1910-1994 is also the name of British composer of light classical music.

Edward White

Edward Higgins White, II (November 14, 1930 - January 27, 1967) was an American astronaut.

He was born in San Antonio, Texas and earned a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy in 1952, and an M.S. in aeronautical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1959. He later married and had two children.

He was chosen with the second group of astronauts in 1962. As pilot of Gemini 4 was the first American to make a spacewalk, and was backup command pilot for Gemini 7. He had been selected to be command module pilot for the first Apollo program flight.

He died with fellow astronauts Virgil Grissom and Roger Chaffee in the Apollo 1 fire at Cape Kennedy.