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The Men Who Didn’t Go to the Moon
Elliot See (left) and Charlie Bassett, who were slated to fly aboard the Gemini 9 mission. Credit: NASA
On this day (Feb. 28) in 1966, the Gemini 9 prime crew was in a T-38 airplane making a final approach to a McDonnell Aircraft plant in St. Louis, Missouri. Amid deteriorating weather conditions, Elliot See tried to make a landing. His airplane collided with the factory building in which his spacecraft was under construction. The plane crashed, killing both See and his crewmate Charlie Bassett.
The accident sent shockwaves through the small astronaut corps, and also necessitated some hasty reassignments. The Gemini 9 backup crew of Tom Stafford and Eugene Cernan immediately became the prime crew and launched into space on May 17, 1966 on a mission that included a challenging spacewalk for Cernan.
But according to Deke Slayton, who was responsible for crew selections at the time, the deaths of See and Bassett even affected the Moon missions of Apollo.
(…)
Read the rest of The Men Who Didn’t Go to the Moon (283 words)
© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2013. |
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Post tags: charles bassett, deke slayton, elliott see, gemini 9
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2013-02-28 07:47:06
Source: http://www.universetoday.com/100334/the-men-who-didnt-go-to-the-moon/
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