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Gemini 9A |
01 June 1966
Backup Crew: Cernan, Stafford
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Elliot See and Charlie Bassett were the prime crew for Gemini 9. On February 28, 1966, they were flying
in a NASA T-38 trainer to visit the McDonnell plant in St Louis, where their spacecraft was in assembly.
See misjudged his landing approach, and in pulling up from the runway hit Building 101 where the spacecraft
was being assembled. Both astronauts were killed, and 14 persons on the ground were injured. As a result,
the Gemini 9 backup crew became the prime crew, and all subsequent crew assignments were reshuffled.
This ended up determining who would be the first man on the moon....