Posts: 175
From: Citrus Heights, CA - USA
Registered: Jan 2006

posted 11-11-2007 08:46 PM               

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Had Charlie Bassett and Elliott See's Gemini 9 training progressed enough to have had a mission patch designed for them before their deaths? If so, is there a place it can be viewed?

Or was the GT-9 patch of Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan actually the patch for Bassett and See but with the names changed?

Posts: 1341
From: New York
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 11-11-2007 09:13 PM               

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As far as I know a Gemini 9 patch with See and Bassett was never made.

The one with Stafford and Cernan is the only Gemini 9 patch produced.

posted 11-22-2007 02:08 PM              

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The NASA photo (S66-28075) of the crew patch for Gemini IX-A was publicly released on 4 April 1966. Bassett and See were killed in the plane crash on 28 February 1966. Since the patch has no names on it, it would be unlikely that a separate patch had been created for Bassett and See.

Space World Space Collectibles sells a memorial patch to the original crew.

Posts: 2590
From: Titusville, FL USA
Registered: Feb 2005

posted 11-22-2007 06:14 PM               

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The only problem I have with Space World's Gemini IX patch is that it puts the pilot's name ahead of the command pilot. When Tom was younger he would have caught that error.

I'd like to know if the design worn by Stafford and Cernan was theirs or one that had already been designed by See and Bassett.

Maybe Colin Burgess knows the answer from his research into his book "Fallen Astronauts."

posted 11-22-2007 08:13 PM              

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The Roman Numeral II on the SpaceWorld commemorative is sewn as an Arabic eleven.

According to "All We Did Was Fly To The Moon" by Dick Lattimer (page 33), Gene Cernan says that "The final design was chosen over dinner with Stafford's and Cernan's wives being somewhat influential." This would lead one to believe that the patch was made exclusively for Stafford and Cernan.

Posts: 29229
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 03-14-2014 08:23 PM               

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On Facebook, a member of the Space Hipsters group has posted a patch he says was distributed to only those who attended the memorial for Bassett and See.

What might be the rarest NASA issued patch was presented only to those that attended a small private memorial service that was held at Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri on this date, March 14th 1966.

...my dad was on a very short list of GE personnel invited to attend the memorial service. It was at this memorial service that my dad met the new prime crew of Staford, Cernan and Lovell who were also at the service. Jim Lovell and my dad became friends. Each of the 75 attendees was given a patch with the program. No more were ever made or given out.

He says he inherited the patch from his father's collection some 30 years ago.

If you accept his story, then it suggests that the Space World souvenir was actually a reproduction of the original memorial design.

That all said, I seem to recall Space World being in business as far back as the 1980s, maybe longer. Does anyone know when they produced their patch?

Posts: 2686
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003

Posts: 414
From: Bethesda, MD
Registered: Jul 2003