Charles Arthur " Charlie " Bassett II , Major , USAF ( December 30 , 1931 – February 28 , 1966 ) was an American electrical engineer and United States Air Force test pilot . He went to Ohio State University for two years and later graduated from Texas Tech University . He joined the air force as a pilot and graduated from both the Aerospace Research Pilot School and the Air Force 's Experimental Test Pilot School . Bassett was married and had two children . He was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1963 and assigned to '' Gemini 9 '' , but died in an airplane crash during training for his first spaceflight . He is memorialized on the Space Mirror Memorial and the '' Fallen Astronaut '' memorial plaque , placed on the Moon during the Apollo 15 mission
an airplane crash
1966 NASA T-38 crash
Charles Bassett