The man who commanded NASA's first spacewalk mission and later took part in the first crewed orbital flight of a lunar module has died. The man was 93.
The cause of his death was not specified by NASA.
After attending junior college, Mr. McDivitt joined the Air Force as an aviation cadet and never looked back.
He became an Air Force test pilot, flew more than 100 fighter missions during the Korean War, and was selected by NASA in 1962 as one of nine astronauts for the bridge between the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the Apollo missions.
The record for a two person spaceflight was set in June 1965, when Mr. McDivitt was in command of the Gemini 4 capsule.
The primary goal of the mission was to find out if astronauts could survive long periods in space. Edward H. White 2d, Mr. McDivitt's crewman, was the first man to walk in space.
Mr. McDivitt caused a stir when he took pictures of a satellite that appeared to be near his craft.
In the NASA oral history, he said that it was similar to a beer can or a pop can and had something stuck out of it. It wasn't black.
When NASA looked at the photos, they didn't find anything that resembled a U.F.O. He said that he might have seen a piece of ice or mylar that fell off his space capsule.
He was followed over the years by the U.F.O. story. He once joked that he became a world-famous expert on U.F.O.s. He had a good time with it. He played himself in an episode of "The Brady Bunch" in January 1974 in which he said that there was more than one universe.
Mr. McDivitt commanded the Apollo 9 flight in March 1969 which was a 10-day trip around the planet. The prototype of the lunar module was flown with Mr. McDivitt and Russell L. Schweickart. After David R. Scott piloted the Apollo 9 craft, the lunar module flew more than 100 miles away and then came back to it.
James McDivitt was born in Chicago in 1929 and grew up in Michigan. He joined the Air Force after working as a water-boiler repairman and attending a junior college.
He was sent to the University of Michigan by the Air Force after the Korean War. In 1959 he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering.
He became a test pilot at the Air Force base in California, then went to the Air Force program for astronauts. He was selected for the show.
The crewman and friend of Mr. White, who was on the Gemini 4 mission, died in January 1967.
The manager of NASA's lunar landing operation at the time was Mr. McDivitt. He was the program manager for the Apollo missions.
He retired from the Air Force as a brigadier general in 1972 and went on to work for a number of companies.
There was no information about his survivors at the time.
Mr. McDivitt had been brought down to earth by his own children.
He gathered the children at the breakfast table one Saturday morning after the public announcement that he had been selected for the program.
He told the kids that he was going to tell them something important. I will be flying in space soon.
His children were aware of it in school. Patrick told his father that there was a bug in the milk bottle on the porch.
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