| Aircraft Accidents Theodore Freeman Charles Bassett II Elliot See Clifton Williams, Jr. Robert Lawrence Michael Adams Yuri Gagarin John McKay Stephen Thorne Stanley David Griggs Manley Carter, Jr. Patricia Hilliard Robertson
Apollo 1
Soyuz 11
Challenger STS-51L
Columbia
STS-107 Other |
Born: 30 December 1931 in Dayton, Ohio. Education: Graduated from Berea High School in 1949. Attended Ohio State University and the Air Force Institute at Texas Technological College. Graduated with honors and a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering. Marital Status: Married the former Jean M. Martin of Hesperia, California. Children: Karen (born 22 December 1957) and Peter (6 April 1961). Professional Organizations: Member, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Long Island Early Fliers, Phi Kappa Tau, Eta Kappa Nu, and Tau Beta Pi. Experience: Charlie Bassett graduated from the Air Force Experimental Pilot School and the Aerospace Research Pilot School. He logged over 3,600 hours flying time, including over 2,900 hours in jet aircraft. NASA Experience: Bassett was selected in Group 3 in October 1963. He was assigned to the operations and training branch headed by Neil Armstrong. This branch of astronauts was responsible for boosters, recovery systems, tracking, communications, and simulators. On 8 November 1965, Deke Slayton informed Bassett that he was to pilot Gemini 9 with Elliot See as his commander. Unofficially, Slayton also told Bassett that he was in line for one of the early lunar landing missions, probably as Command Module Pilot. Slayton thought that he worked well with Frank Borman and Bill Anders (who later flew on Apollo 8), and had a high probability of later commanding a lunar landing mission. On 28 February 1966, he and See were flying to McDonnell Aircraft Corporation's Lambert Field near St. Louis, Missouri. The weather was heavily overcast with rain and snow flurries. On their first instrument landing approach in the T-38 they came in too low and slow. See hit the afterburners and turned right into the roof of a building. Both See and Bassett were killed. The building they hit was McDonnell 101, which was housing their Gemini 9 spacecraft. Deke had planned on assigning Bassett to the command module pilot on Frank Borman's Apollo 3 mission, which later became Apollo 8. Quote: "I'd always wanted to fly and wanted to fly jets, then I wanted to be a test pilot. So I was just lucky enough to follow it right along into the space program."
Gemini 9 crew photo: Elliot See (left) and Charles Bassett (right). |
