Bruce McCandless II, the former NASA astronaut who was famously photographed making space history, has died at 80.

McCandless, who died Thursday, was the first astronaut to float untethered from a spacecraft. He used the nitrogen-propelled Manned Maneuvering Unit a few meters from the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1984.

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"My wife [Bernice] was at mission control, and there was quite a bit of apprehension," McCandless wrote in "The Guardian" in 2015. I wanted to say something similar to Neil [Armstrong] when he landed on the moon, so I said, 'It may have been a small step for Neil, but it’s a heck of a big leap for me.' That loosened the tension a bit."

Selected into the astronaut program in 1966, McCandless' achievements include serving mission control communicator for Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's historic Apollo 11 moonwalk. In 1990, he and four other astronauts deployed the famed Hubble Space Telescope.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to Bruce's family," said acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot. "He will always be known for his iconic photo flying the MMU."

McCandless was a retired Navy captain. He was born in Boston and moved to California. His father was Rear Admiral Bruce McCandless, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service during the battle of Guadalcanal in World War II.