Bassett was born on December 30, 1931, in Dayton, Ohio, to Charles Arthur "Pete" Bassett (1897–1957) and Fannie Belle Milby Bassett (née James; 1907–1993).[1] Bassett was active in the Boy Scouts of America, where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout.[2] During high school, Bassett was a model plane aficionado. He belonged to a club that built gasoline-powered models and flew them in the school gym. Bassett's interest in model airplanes translated to real aircraft; he made his first solo flight at age 16. He worked odd jobs at the airport to earn money for flying lessons and earned his private pilot license at age seventeen.[3]
Bassett was one of NASA's third group of astronauts, named in October 1963.[9] In addition to participating in the overall astronaut training program, he had specific responsibilities related to training and simulators. On November 8, 1965, he was selected as pilot of the Gemini 9 mission with Elliot See as command pilot.[4] Bassett was scheduled to make an untethered ninety-minute spacewalk,[10] which was undertaken by Gene Cernan on Gemini 9A.
According to chief astronaut Deke Slayton's autobiography, he chose Bassett for Gemini 9 because he was "strong enough to carry" both himself and See. Slayton had also assigned Bassett as command module pilot for the second backup Apollo crew, alongside Frank Borman and William Anders.[11]
Personal life
On June 22, 1955, Bassett married Jeannie Martin.[12] They had two children.[4][13][14]
Bassett and Elliot See died on February 28, 1966, when their T-38 trainer jet, piloted by See, crashed into McDonnell Aircraft Building 101, known as the McDonnell Space Center, 1,000 feet (300 m) from Lambert Field airport in St. Louis, Missouri.[13][15] Building 101 was where the Gemini spacecraft was built, and the two astronauts were going there that Monday morning to train for two weeks in a simulator. They died within five hundred feet (150 m) of their spacecraft.[16]
Both astronauts died instantly from trauma sustained in the crash. See was thrown clear of the cockpit and was found in the parking lot still strapped to his ejection seat with the parachute partially open. Bassett was decapitated on impact; his severed head was found later in the day in the rafters of the damaged assembly building.
A NASA investigative panel later concluded that pilot error, caused by poor visibility due to bad weather, was the principal cause of the accident. The panel concluded that See was flying too low to the ground during his second approach, probably because of the poor visibility.[23]
His name also appears on the Fallen Astronaut memorial plaque at Hadley Rille on the Moon, placed by the Apollo 15 mission in 1971.[25] Texas Tech University dedicated an Electrical Engineering Research Laboratory building in Bassett's honor in November 1996.[26]