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Deke!: An Autobiography
by Donald K. Slayton
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$16.95 |
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Paperback
Publisher: Forge Books
ISBN13: 9780312859183
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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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| Deke America's head astronaut did it all. Incredible accomplishments |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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"Deke" US Manned Space is one of the best books written about Donald Slayton and the entire space program from Mercury all the way through the Shuttle.
We see his military and test pilot career and astronaut head of astronaut selection and staffing for the flights. Later after retirement we see Deke racing Formula 1 airplanes, and becoming president of a small company trying to start commercial space launches.
Deke LOVED flying. He flew bombers in WW2 and fighters and had a lot of combat experience. Later he was a jet test pilot and was accepted into the start of the Astronaut program as one of the original Mercury 7. He gets detailed to NASA and achieves the rank of major in the air force. However he has a heart fibrillation and is grounded. With almost 19 total years of various military time he calls the big General Curtis Lemay. He says " General you leave me no choice...I must resign because you are grounding me". The general thinks Deke is crazy throwing away an Air Force retirement with only 1 year to go. That takes balls.
Deke stays in NASA as head of hiring astronauts and assigning them to various training and space flights. He misses his best friend Gus Grissom who he assigned with astronauts White and Chaffee to go on Apollo 1. They die in a horrible fire inside the spacecraft on the ground. Later he is the one to assign Neil Armstrong to be the first man on the moon. He assigns all the astronauts for various flights and is in charge of the selection process for the astronauts/astronaut scientists/ mission specialists and payload specialists. We see the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, the moon landings, Apollo/Soyuz, Space Lab and the Shuttle programs. He is involved with all these programs. He stays grounded for years and years until he gets his heart fibrillation stabilized and then is cleared to fly. Finally he gets his big ride on an Apollo spacecraft for an Apollo /Soyuz combined American/Russian mission.
Deke is a workaholic .Deke marries twice but is a loving husband and father
that because of his job had to spend a lot of time from his family and that put a strain on things.
Deke did it all. A true hero. So much accomplished in a short period of time. He did so much for the entire world in the military and with the space program. This is one of the BEST astronaut books. Buy the book, learn and enjoy. Highest rating 5 stars... wish I could give 10 stars.
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| It is hard not to really admire this man |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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My whole family has recently gotten interested in the early space program, adults right down to our 13 yr old son. Of all the astronaut biographies and auto-biographies out there, only Michael Collins' Carrying the Fire is any better. This one gives real insight into both the very admirable Deke Slayton himself, and the role he played in NASA in the 1960s through his retirement. It is clear that the man was human, and had his prejudices and opinions -- he didn't, for instance, think that anyone but test pilots had any business in space at least through the Apollo program. He was, as other astronauts have said, "a stand-up guy" who took responsibility for all his decisions, good and bad. He never gave up his dream of flying in space, and I am so glad he got to fly that Apollo-Soyuz joint mission. He was an admirable man, one that I am glad I got to know about and introduce to my children. The book is well-written, with a no-nonsense style and has flashes of humor. Slayton is not maudlin at all, but his account of the day the Apollo 1 astronauts died had me in tears. I could not read it aloud.
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| The Pinnacle of Space Books |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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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.
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| The Holy Grail for how the early manned space program happened. |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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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.
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| Deke!: An Autobiography |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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The book arrived within the scheduled delivery time in excellent condition.
Thank you,
Mark & Francine Keehnel
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