LA MORT DE L'ÉQUIPAGE DE GEMINI 9 (Crash T-38 NASA 901)

Video from the channel La Référence Astronomique about Project Gemini, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 7:13. Language: French. Video type: Documentary.

The video reconstructs the accident of 28 February 1966 in which Elliot See and Charles Bassett, Gemini 9's prime crew, died just months before the planned launch. Their NASA T-38 training jet, registration NASA 901, crashed while landing in St. Louis.

See belonged to the second group of astronauts, selected in September 1962, and Bassett to the third, from October 1963. Both were assigned to Gemini 9 on 8 November 1965. They were flying from Ellington base in Texas to the McDonnell Aircraft plant in St. Louis, where their capsule was being built, to train on the orbital rendezvous simulator. The backup crew, Stafford and Cernan, flew in another T-38, NASA 907.

There was rain and fog at the destination, and on breaking out of the clouds both aircraft had overflown the runway. Stafford repeated the instrument approach and landed. See attempted a visual approach and ended up too low and off to the side of the runway. The aircraft struck McDonnell's Building 101, about 150 metres from the Gemini 9 capsule, and crashed seconds later; a fragment damaged the Gemini 10 capsule. The final report attributed the accident to pilot error, although See was described as a cautious pilot. Their names appear on the "Fallen Astronaut" plaque left on the Moon in 1971.