Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The original crew for Gemini 9, command pilot Elliot See and pilot Charles Bassett, were killed in a crash on February 28, 1966, while flying a T-38 jet trainer to the McDonnell Aircraft plant in St. Louis, Missouri to inspect their spacecraft. Their deaths promoted the backup crew, Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene Cernan, to the prime crew
Cernan was originally selected with Thomas Stafford as backup pilot for Gemini 9. When the prime crew of Elliot See and Charles Bassett was killed in the crash of NASA T-38A "901" (USAF serial 63–8181) at Lambert Field , Missouri , on February 28, 1966, the backup crew became the prime crew—the first time in NASA history this happened. [ 9 ]
See and Bassett were the prime crew assigned to the Gemini 9 mission. They and the backup crew for the mission, Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan, were flying to St. Louis from their normal training base in Houston for two weeks of simulator training for rendezvous and docking procedures at McDonnell Aircraft, the prime contractor for the Gemini spacecraft.
A second GATV launch failure occurred on May 17, 1966, as Gemini 9 astronauts Tom Stafford and Eugene Cernan sat on their pad awaiting launch. The Atlas–Agena lifted smoothly into a cloudy sky, vanishing from view around T+50 seconds.
Gemini IX-A: Eugene Cernan: A complex EVA was planned. [6] Cernan expended four to five times the expected effort, raising his pulse as high as 180 beats per minute. Excess heat and respiration completely fogged visor, causing the EVA to be cut short. Cernan also had difficulty returning to spacecraft and closing the hatch. [7] 19 July 21:44 49 ...
Before Gemini 6A, Stafford was assigned as the backup commander for Gemini 9 with Eugene Cernan as the backup pilot. Charlie Bassett and Elliot See were the primary crew. On February 28, 1966, both crews flew in T-38 Talons to Lambert Field to visit the McDonnell Douglas Gemini assembly facility.
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
All three of the men who flew to the Moon twice-Jim Lovell, John Young and Gene Cernan-were Gemini veterans. With the exception of Elliot See, every member of NASA's second Astronaut Group—the class of nine men selected following the Mercury Seven—flew as a Gemini astronaut.