Facts about Deke Slayton

1. 08

   Deke Slayton's 1962 grounding ended his chances of commanding a Gemini or Apollo mission, making him the only Mercury Seven astronaut never to lead a spaceflight.

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2. 07

   Deke Slayton served as flight director and mission control communicator for the Gemini and Apollo programs before returning to active spaceflight duty in 1975.

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3. 06

   Before his astronaut career, Deke Slayton flew 78 combat missions as an Air Force pilot during World War II in the European theater.

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4. 05

   A cardiac arrhythmia discovered during preflight testing in 1962 prevented Deke Slayton from flying any spacecraft for nearly 16 years before he finally launched on Apollo-Soyuz in 1975.

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5. 04

   Selected as a Mercury Seven astronaut in 1959, Deke Slayton served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1963 to 1971, overseeing the training and assignments of America's space program personnel.

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6. 03

   Mercury astronaut Deke Slayton logged 354 hours in space across his four spaceflights between 1962 and 1975.

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7. 02

   Deke Slayton was grounded from flying for 16 years due to an irregular heartbeat diagnosed in 1962 before NASA cleared him for the Apollo-Soyuz mission.

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8. 01

   In 1975, Deke Slayton became the fifth American to walk on the Moon during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission.

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