posted 11-03-2003 10:22 AM               

The book is chalk full of information concerning the lives of men most of us only know as footnotes in the history of the race to the moon. Fallen Astronauts has brought these men to life and provided facts about their lives, the accidents that took their lives as well as the potential changes in the flight rotation caused by their untimely deaths.

It is well worth reading as it fills gaps in the knowledge most of us have about the race to the moon.

posted 11-03-2003 11:56 AM            

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Originally posted by ColinBurgess:
Walt Cunningham unexpectedly gave it a lengthy, five-star review!

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posted 11-03-2003 04:37 PM               

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Originally posted by Philip:
"Fallen Astronauts" reminds me of a small statuette made by Belgian artist Paul van Hoeydonck which represented a fallen person to be a cosmonaut or astronaut.

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Some years ago I wrote an article for the BIS "Spaceflight" magazine on the life of Ed Givens, and I ended it by saying that at least his name had made it to the moon on that plaque, in the lunar soil by the deliberately-toppled "fallen astronaut." The article (titled "Fallen Astronaut") led me to investigate the lives of the other astronauts and cosmonauts whose names (with the exception of two then not known) were engraved on that plaque left by Scott and Irwin.

The book was undergoing early production at the time of the Columbia accident, and it was only coincidental that President Bush began referring to the crew as "these fallen astronauts."

posted 11-25-2003 08:58 PM               

The 3000 townspeople of Quanah really turned on some sort of celebration when I arrived, accompanied by good friend (and van driver) Wally Funk, one of the Mercury 13 gals. We both gave talks at Quanah High School to hundreds of local kids, and to various groups within Quanah. One highlight was being privileged to take part in the dedication of the new Ed Givens Space Room in Quanah's A&P Depot Museum. Tom Stafford sent me a few words to read out, as he had opened the (now relocated) original Space Room back in 1977, and was a great friend of Ed Givens.

Earlier in the day I was introduced to two of Ed's children, Cathrine and Dianne, and it was lovely to meet them after all this time. We made a small pilgrimage out to the Quanah Memorial Cemetery where Ed, his brother, parents and antecedents are buried, and quietly paid our respects. It was a highly emotional day, and no more so than when I showed the girls three photos of Ed's funeral that a Quanah local had found in the newspaper's photo archives. In my book, Cathrine wrote that the one real sadness of her life was that, as just a four-year-old, her mother had not taken her to her father's funeral, presumably to spare her the sadness. Dianne, who was only a babe in arms when her father died, looked at the photos and said to her older sister, "I thought you said you never went to Dad's funeral?" When Cathrine confirmed this, Dianne pointed to one of my photos and said, "Well, sis, here you are, sitting in the second row of seats!" At this point Cathrine just broke down, and when she later made a short speech at the dediaction, she expressed her profound happiness at finding out through me that she had indeed been at her father's funeral. It's one small correction I'm happy to make in the book should it go to a second edition, and one of the reasons I love writing non-fiction - it is intensely satisfying when such moments occur. It provided a very poignant touch to what had already been a wonderful day spent celebrating the life of an extraordinary man whose dreams were cut short by a simple but fatal accident. I may only be a very small voice in the distant wilderness, but I am not going to rest until I get his name on the Astronaut Memorial Mirror. It broke my heart to see the tremendous love these girls had for a father they barely knew, and yet the board of the Astronaut Memorial Foundation vapidly dismisses any suggestion that he should be on there, with their pathetic "he was off duty" response. If they could know the hurt that this rejection has caused this beautiful family, they might change their minds. Ed Givens was not off-duty the day he died - not astronaut was ever off duty back then, and even now. He gave his life for NASA and his nation, and these people should be proud to recognise this, not slam the door in his family's face whenever the issue is raised.

One side story - Tom Stafford told me that he was actually supposed to have been at the same function as Ed that night, but had a prior appointment that precluded his attendance. "Do you know, I could have been in that car wih Ed that night," he told me. Quite obviously, this would have changed the circumstances and Ed probably wouldn't have crashed or died that night, but would NASA have placed Tom Stafford's name on the Astronaut memorial Mirror had they both been killed that night? Would NASA and the AMF have considered Tom, even though he had made two flights by then, an "off-duty stronaut" and declined to recognise his achievements? I don't think so.

posted 12-10-2003 04:28 PM               

I can still recall the devastation I felt when Ted Freeman died in the crash of his T-38; I was only 17 at the time and my interest in manned space flight had really developed quickly into a deep fascination with the subject that, despite several tragedies, has lasted and still endures. A few weeks before he died I'd received a handwritten letter from Freeman, which lent a person aspect to his loss. Same for C.C. Williams, who also sent me a nice handwritten letter (ah, those were the days!) And of course I received a letter from Charlie Bassett in which he spoke of the death of Ted Freeman but said we had to move on in our quest for knowledge despite the pain. Then he too was gone.

posted 12-21-2003 05:49 AM               

I was very interested to read your views on the possible causes of Gagarin's MIG accident.

At a recent show in Coventry, UK, Pavel Popovich gave a talk about his experiences of the Russian space programme and, at the end of it, I asked him for his personal view on the most likely cause of Gagarin's accident.

He told our group that he'd headed up the investigating panel post the accident and that their unofficial view was that, most likely, there had been a problem with the oxygen supply in the MIG which caused both Gagarin & his instructor to lose consciousness. He then felt that they had regained consciousness around 10,000 ft when the Mig was spinning to earth in cloud and had been trying to regain control until the last second, which accounted for them not ejecting.

He also said that there had never been any official Russian government investigation into the accident, which does seem strange bearing in mind the world fame of Gagarin at that time.

I guess we'll never really know for certain what happened and there will always remain an element of mystery surrounding the accident.

posted 12-21-2003 07:19 AM               

I'm currently writing another book on several spaceflight pioneers together with a new co-author, and all will be revealed around the end of next year. Nothing startling, mind you, but it's a project near and dear to both our hearts, and it's coming along really well. Sorry to have to be so mysterious, but that's just an author being protective of an idea. However it will contain a lot of astronaut biographical material.

posted 01-11-2004 07:41 AM               

Colin Burgess and his co-authors achieve to create a colorful portrait of each of the deceased astronauts, sometimes so lively one could imagine to stand next to them. A very worthy tribute to some fine pioneers who were just unlucky to be at the wrong place at a wrong time and got killed. Perhaps a few more photos would have been nice (but also expensive to print, I know).

posted 01-11-2004 04:30 PM               

Promising contacts with members of the White family (Ed's sister was very keen to assist)were continually stymied by a member of the family who took it upon himself to abort all of these leads, while insisting that any and all correspondence be directed through him. As with some other controversial projects in which he has been involved, this family member then reneged on all his promises of assistance and fell silent.

By comparison, Martha Chaffee was very supportive, but sadly offered nothing really new to Roger's story, believing it to have been fully covered in Don Chaffee's biography of his son.

posted 08-28-2004 06:51 PM               

Along with the other members on this site I just like to add what a fantastic book you Kate and Bert put together.

I was quite moved (which is not normally like me) in places in the book with the way these guys had tragically died (Bondarenko for one).

If the Russian were more open in the way of the dangers in working with pure oxygen who knows, things MIGHT have been different on Apollo 1.

The history books would tell a different story on the moon landings AND Skylab with the "What if " situation had these's guys had not been taken away from us and there loved ones.

posted 08-29-2004 08:48 AM               

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Originally posted by Wehaveliftoff:
How odd and sad no dust cover jacket was issued for the hardback.

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posted 08-17-2005 01:35 PM               

The composition is engaging, and keeps you turning pages. The attention to detail is fantastic. Colin has his facts straight and his use of interviews is extensive and enlightening.

posted 02-18-2007 06:38 PM               

The publishers have recently mentioned that "Fallen Astronauts" (upon which the series cover designs have been based) may one day be re-released, but this time with a dust jacket (hooray!)

posted 11-26-2012 11:47 PM            

Regarding the T-38 crash of See/Bassett:

In the picture you have in your book of the crash aftermath, it shows that the fifth column of windows from the left was damaged by the accident. If you go to this Google Maps Street View, you can see the side of the building... and the fifth column of vertical windows is obviously shorter than the other columns. (It's obvious that all of the vertical columns of windows were originally the same height.) Even 46-47 years after the accident there's still evidence of the accident.

Regarding the Ted Freeman Crash:

Using the pic provided in your book as well as other images of the accident I found online I was able to determine the exact area of the crash in Google Maps.

posted 11-27-2012 04:13 PM               

No matter how many years go by I cannot help but wonder what these guys might have done if they hadn't been so tragically lost to us. I am led to believe that prior to his death Ted Freeman was on the verge of being paired with Tom Stafford as the GT-9 backup crew, and this would make sense as Bassett and Freeman were great buddies dating back to their USAF Test Pilot School days and would have worked well together as a team. Had this happened, and not the subsequent T-38 accidents, it would have placed Stafford and Freeman on GT-12. As well, with very little apart from guesswork and knowing who worked well with whom to support my theory, I believe that a later Apollo landing crew might have been CDR Bassett, LMP Aldrin and CMP Freeman. But sadly we shall never know and it therefore remains as mere speculation.

posted 12-24-2012 04:48 PM               

From the outset, I didn't know if I would be able to make contact with the families of the deceased astronauts, or how they would react to my request for some often very personal details. So yes, in talking with chidren who never really got to know their father, or wives who still desperately miss their husband, the book developed in a certain direction and became more of a tribute to them than a tell-all about their lives. Certainly I was told things by family members and other people who knew them that could never appear in the book, but those people trusted me not to reveal these stories and I never have, or will.

I came to know better than most a handful of men who, had they not been killed in accidents, would today be hailed as being among our greatest spaceflight pioneers. Their deaths certainly changed such things as crew rotations, but I feel saddened that they never got to fly to the moon. They would have done an outstanding job, and I've never made any secret of the fact that Charlie Bassett, in particular, would have made an outstanding Apollo landing crew commander.

The research highlight, for me, was in locating Bill Hall, who was in the VW with Ed Givens the night he died, and totally rejected all allegations that Givens was either speeding or DUI. The greatest sadness is that even though Givens was in training for a lunar flight, had been involved in a simulated flight to the moon, and was on the support crew for the first two Apollo missions, he was never recognised as being worthy of placement - or honoured - on the Astronaut Memorial Mirror at the Cape by the Astronaut Memorial Foundation committee. That, I still believe, is a disgrace and a lingering sadness for his surviving family members.

On another note, Elliot See was indeed a cheerleader, Rob, and so too was another man who flew to the moon, Al Worden.