Deke's Comeback

It was a day that Donald K. ("Deke") Slayton would never forget. On March 15, 1962, only two months before the taciturn astronaut was scheduled to become the second American to orbit the earth, NASA doctors abruptly grounded him. Reason: they had discovered an occasional irregularity in the rhythm of his heartbeat. The bitterly disappointed Slayton subsequently became chief of flight-crew operations at the Manned Spacecraft Center and played a key role in picking all future space crews, including the first men to land on the moon. But even as he sent other astronauts to the launch pad, he never stopped dreaming of making the trip into space himself.

Last week, in a classic comeback story, Slayton got his wish. NASA named him to the crew of the Apollo spacecraft that will rendezvous and dock with a Russian Soyuz spaceship in 1975. His crewmates will be Air Force Brigadier General Thomas Stafford, a veteran of one Apollo and two Gemini flights, and Civilian Astronaut Vance Brand, another space rookie. Though obviously elated, the crewcut, 48-year-old Slayton--who will be the oldest American to go into space by the time of the launch --greeted the news in his characteristic gritty style: "I'd rather be a 50-year-old rookie than a 50-year-old has-been."

Just about everyone in Houston had doubted he would ever make it to the launch pad--everyone, that is, except Slayton. Determined to prove that he was physically fit, he continually worked out in the astronauts' gym, jogged across the sprawling space center (inexplicably, the heart irregularity always vanished after a good run) and kept up his piloting skills by flying with other astronauts in dual-control jets. Over the years, he also consulted prominent cardiologists, including Paul Dudley White. All for naught; though the irregularity did not recur for months at a time, it inevitably came back. Then, in 1970, it again went away. In fact, a whole year passed without an episode. Finally, Slayton and Dr. Charles Berry, then the astronauts' chief physician, felt sufficiently encouraged to begin a series of complex cardiological tests, including the insertion of two tiny probes into Slayton's heart by specialists at the Mayo Clinic.

Slayton passed his examinations with flying colors, and last spring NASA again cleared him. Still, his chances of getting an assignment seemed as remote as the moon. All places on the remaining lunar expeditions were already filled; crews had also been picked for the three earth-orbiting Skylab missions. Only one faint chance remained, and Slayton was not about to miss it for lack of qualifications. Even before Washington and Moscow firmly agreed last year to undertake the historic joint mission, Deke began to study Russian.

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