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Summary:
Deke Slayton was one of the first seven Mercury astronauts--and he might have been the first American in space. Instead, he became the first chief of American Astronaut Corps. It was Deke Slayton who selected the crews who flew the Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab missions. It was Deke Slayton who made Neil Armstrong the first man on the moon.
Deke! is Deke Slayton's' story--told in his own words and in the voices of the men and women who worked with him and knew him best. Deke Slayton's knowledge of how the .S. manned space program worked is the missing piece of every space buff's puzzle. Now, after decades of silence, he tells his priceless stories of those years when American was engaged in the greatest voyage of exploration in human history.
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The Pinnacle of Space Books
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I would have to say that this book, more than any other, is one I have read and referred to many times over. Covering the most astonishing era of science and exploration in our history, this is the story of the man who was not only a superb pilot and astronaut, but as their influential superior forged the careers of others, by determining who would crew crucial missions. It might have been a difficult thing to have said to Deke's face, but if he hadn't been grounded with a minor heart aliment in the early 1960s, he might only be remembered today as a fellow who flew the Delta 7 Mercury mission after John Glenn's unforgettable flight, and perhaps another one or two missions. But he was forced into taking the responsible position of Chief Astronaut, and in doing so became the perfect person for the job, and today we celebrate that accidental irony. Of course he finally got to make a space flight in 1975, so his NASA astronaut career had a happy ending after all.
Deke knew all of the other astronauts well, and understood better than most who would form the most compatible and best-performing crews for a particular flight. Put two guys together in a VW bug-sized spacecraft and whirl them around the world with little to do for two weeks and see them want to kill each other by mission's end. But that didn't happen on Deke's watch - he matched people and personalities perfectly, and the crux of this, his legacy, are the many highly successful space missions that operated under his pragmatic management.
It is a cracking good book as well, and Michael Cassutt managed to get the most he could from a gravely ill Deke Slayton, who sadly passed away before this book could be published. On behalf of all spaceflight enthusiasts and historians, however, thanks heavens for Michael's foresight in conceiving and carrying through with this book; for without it a veritable raft of questions about the space program and the astronauts will forever have remained unanswered. It is certainly a definitive and reliable source of information for me, and I am delighted that the story of a great man has been so eloquently and thoroughly told.
The Holy Grail for how the early manned space program happened.
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If you want to know how the first person to set foot on the moon was chosen, or any of the other why's that were previously unknown and hidden to outside knowledge, then this is the book that you'll want to read.
Deke Slayton was an astronaut himself with one of the most fascinating personal stories (which we learn in this book). But he was also deeply involved, perhaps more than anyone, in choosing who flew and on which flights.
Before Slayton died at a relatively young age, his name was added to a book called "Moon Shot," which was shallow and disappointing. The stories I knew he must have were not in there. With his death, I assumed that we'd lost any opportunity to know how the astronaut selection process had worked, something which had decided which spacefarer would be a name to be remembered for all time in the history books, and who would be obscure, even forgotten.
But then I found that he hadn't written "Moonshot" - he'd actually been working on this second, much better, much deeper book. And here are all the stories. For the first time, we learned how some of the most historic and momentous decisions were made. It makes for fascinating reading, and I am thankful that Slayton took the time to get it all down on paper before he passed away.
Possibly the best recommendation for this book is that many astronauts have commented that they did not know why they had been picked for certain flights (or passed over) until, decades after retirement, they read this book.
An essential read for anyone with the slightest interest in some of the most important historical events of our age.
Deke!: An Autobiography
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The book arrived within the scheduled delivery time in excellent condition.
Thank you,
Mark & Francine Keehnel
You Can't Argue With Success, But....
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There is no question about it, Deke Slayton was one of the people most responsible for the amazing success of the American Space Program in the 1960's. As Director of Flight Crew Operations, he chose the astronaut crews that flew the missions. When looking back at the flights, there is no question that Slayton knew who to put where in order to get the job done. However, to this day, there are still a lot of questions in the air which Slayton did not really address in his otherwise outstanding book. For example, in Andrew Chaikin's book "A Man On the Moon", or Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham's book, many astronauts say that they never got a handle on how Slayton made his choices. Astronauts, particularly those chosen in later groups, even though they were fine pilots, highly educated and hard workers, would seemingly be passed over for flights by more veteran astronauts that didn't seem to be as well qualified. This was due to what Cunningham called "the pecking order" and a prime qualification of that pecking order was to be a personal pal of Slayton's. One example of this was Slayton's choice of Alan Shepard to be commander of Apollo 13, later switched to 14, even though Shepard had only his single 15-minute Mercury flight 10 years earlier (Shepard had been grounded due to an inner-ear problem). Many thought that Shepard should be required to do duty on a back-up crew prior to his being given command, and that otherwise he would have a lot of problems getting up to speed with the complex Apollo and Lunar Module (LM) spacecraft. In the end, Shepard did a fine job piloting the LM to a pinpoint touchdown in the Fra Mauro region of the Moon, but he, like many of the original Mercury astronauts, had little interest in the scientific aspects of space exploration, and as a result, the scientific yield of the mission was very disappointing. Another example was Gene Cernan who was chosen to command the final Apollo 17 mission in spite of reservations from important people in the program like Jim McDivitt, former astronaut and later head of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office. Cernan crashed his helicopter while he was ogling sunbathing girls. Something like this is usually unforgiveable, but Slayton covered up for him. Slayton does not really clarify questions like these. He states that he originally chose the crew of Grissom, Eisele and Chaffee to fly the first Apollo mission (Eisele was replaced by Ed White-and it was they who perished in the Apollo 1 fire). Slayton states directly that since there would be no rendezvous and docking with a LM in this mission, it wouldn't be as difficult as later ones so he could use astronauts who were "weaker". He does not explain why he felt they were weaker. Slayton also states that he was prepared for scientist-astronaut Harrison Schmitt (the only professional geologist to qualify as an astronaut) to fly as LM Pilot in Apollo 18 (giving him a chance to walk on the Moon), but he strongly objected to moving him up to fly Apollo 17 after it became clear that Apollo 17 would be the last mission. In the end, he capitulated to the political pressure from the scientific community and Congress, but it is hard for me to see why someone qualified for Apollo 18 should not fly Apollo 17 if he was able to handle the LM Pilot duties in addition to the scientific work he was best qualified to handle.
In summary, this is a very good book with a lot of information, and it is clear that Slayton knew what he was doing, but he doesn't really clarify how he ultimately evaluated the abilities of the astronauts who worked for him which would have really made the book that much more interesting.
Details about life in the early astronaut office.
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The best insiders book about the early astronaut office. It has so much good stuff about which astronaut was assigned what duties and a good behind the scenes view of each spaceflight. There are also good stories about some of the lesser known astronauts who never flew in space. A great book!
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