Untethered EVAs on space missions

[Mangetout]

Prior to modern powered manoeuvring units such as this one, has it ever been standard practice (whether only by documented intent, or actually put into practice) to perform untethered EVAs?

I mean, either where the astronaut climbs out and uses handholds to maintain contact with the vehicle, or where transfer between vehicles, or from one part of a vehicle to another is performed by launching and floating free for a while.

This sort of thing happens in the movies all the time - of course, it seems like a terrible idea - but I’m just wondering if it was ever seriously considered as standard practice, anywhere.

[ElvisL1ves]

Three different Shuttle missions in 1984 used the Manned Maneuvering Unit. It simply turned out not to have any advantages over using the arm as a cherrypicker. The SAFER system was tested once but never used in application.

[Heracles]

For the Gemini VI / VII mission, there was brief talk of exchanging single crewmembers between the capsules.

From On the shoulders of Titans: A history of project Gemini :

Schirra and Stafford wanted to add extravehicular activity to the flight plans - perhaps Stafford could change places with Lovell in a demonstration of space rescue - but they met a pronounced rebuff. Borman’s goal was a 14-day mission. He wanted nothing to do with any proposal that might threaten it. “Wally could have had all the EVA he wanted,” Borman later said, “but I wasn’t going to open the hatch.” There were real hazards in trying to exchange pilots in mid-space, since the life support hoses would have to be detached and reconnected in a vacuum, leaving the pilots with only the backup system to depend on as they traveled between the two spacecraft. It might have looked great in the headlines, Borman added, “but one little slip could have lost the farm.”