Bassett and See
Published on Feb 28, 2008 at 3:50 pm.
4 Comments.
Filed under astronauts.
The United States, and the world, was shocked on January 28, 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed in a launch accident, claiming the lives of seven astronauts. NASA losing astronauts on a mission was a new thing. Another seven astronauts lost their lives when the Space Shuttle Columbia on mission STS-107 broke apart on reentry over Texas on February 1, 2003. People were shocked. NASA has had a very good safety track record. They simply don’t lose astronauts. Or so, people thought.
The Challenger crew were not the first astronauts that NASA had lost. On January 27, 1967, a fire on board an Apollo capsule killed the crew of three astronauts (Grissom, White, Chaffee). That was a training exercise, and was later designated Apollo 1. The rocket did not lift off, and it was not planned for it to lift off that day. People sometimes remember that accident as a predecessor to the fatal Space Shuttle accidents. But, NASA had lost astronauts even before then. Forty-two years ago today, on February 28, 1966, two other astronauts were killed while on duty.
Charles Arthur Bassett, II, and Elliot McKay See, Jr., were killed when their T-38 training aircraft crashed into a hangar at Lambert Field at St. Louis, Missouri. They were the primary crew for the Gemini IX mission. Their deaths moved the backup crew of Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene A. Cernan into the primary crew position for the mission. That made Stafford and Cernan the first backup crew to actually fly a NASA mission. Of course, that meant that a new backup crew was needed, and so the whole rotation order of crews was shifted for the rest of the Gemini program. This resulted in different astronauts having different levels of experience and a different spot in the crew rotations, ultimately influencing which astronauts were selected for specific missions in the Apollo program. The investigation into the crash indicated that poor visibility was a factor in the crash. See was flying too low to the ground due to the poor visibility when the aircraft crashed into the hangar, killing both him and Bassett.
Charles Bassett was born in Dayton, Ohio, December 30, 1911. He joined the Air Force in 1952, ultimately rising to the rank of Captain. He became a pilot with the Air Force. Later he received a bachelor’s degree with honors in electrical engineering from Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University). Eventually, he became an Air Force test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Basset was selected by NASA to be an astronaut in October, 1963, as part of the third group of pilots selected for astronaut training. Bassett was selected to the primary crew as pilot for Gemini IX in November, 1965. In December, 1965, he served in Mission Control as capcom (capsule communicator) for the joint Gemini VI and Gemini VII missions. Bassett was an experience pilot with over 3600 hours of flight time. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Elliot See was born in Dallas, Texas, on July 23, 1927. In 1949, he received a B.S. degree from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. He went to work for General Electric Company as a test pilot. From 1953 to 1956, See served with the U.S. Navy as a naval aviator. After his service, he returned to General Electric as a flight test engineer. In 1962, See received a Master of Science in Engineering degree from the University of California at Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter, in September, 1962, See was selected by NASA to be an astronaut as part of the second group of astronauts selected. He served as part of the backup crew for Gemini V. See was then selected to be the command pilot for Gemini IX. See was an experience pilot, with over 3700 hours of flight time. He, too, is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Both of these men deserve credit for the work that they did in the astronaut corps, even though they never flew into space in a Gemini capsule. However, since they never flew into space, they are often forgotten.
-Astroprof
Images courtesy NASA, JSC
DavidG on February 29, 2008 at 2:02 pm: 1
Do not forger Adams …
http://history.nasa.gov/x15/adams.html
Lonnie R. Martin on April 15, 2008 at 8:34 am: 2
Bassett and See crashed into the roof of McDonnell Aircraft Company’s Building 101 known as McDonnell Space Center and fell into the courtyard there. It is located by Lambert Field. It was the very building that Gemini 9 was being built in. In fact Bassett and See had come to St. Louis to get acquainted with the capsule. They died within 500 feet of where it was being built. Several McDonnell workers were injured slightly from the collision.
It was a very sad day. I know because I was there in the building.
They are not forgotten.
Dan on July 28, 2008 at 9:08 pm: 3
Do you know if there are any photographs of the crash site? Not for any kind of morbid curiosity, just for historical interest. My Google searches have turned up zip.
Lonnie Martin on August 17, 2008 at 11:41 am: 4
There was a picture of the crash in the St. Louis-Post Dispatch at the time.