Moon shot by Deke Slayton: How the man who chose the crew of Apollo 11 was finally able to fly | Local

Slayton, a self-proclaimed "stick and rudder jockey" from the Sparta area, was one of the members of Mercury 7, the first group of NASA astronauts to perform this operation. In fact, Slayton was the fourth American in space until a mild heart attack anchored him before his first flight.

Now, Slayton drafted the list to determine who would steal each mission. He chose Armstrong to order Apollo 11, Aldrin to fly the lunar module and Collins to fly the control module. The feathers did not fail him when astronauts approached him for missions, including that would take the first step on the moon. And he was the link between the astronauts and the senior officers who decided whether Apollo 11 should be launched as planned.

After the Apollo 11 crew had had their medical exams before the flight, Slayton joined them for the traditional steak and egg breakfast before the launch. He accompanied them for part of the 13 km that separated them from the launching ramp before descending to the control center.

"I've been to this carpet twenty times," he told The New York Times in 1973. "Whenever I wanted to go to the end, I got it. really done. "

Even though he helped guide his astronaut comrades in space, then in the moon, Slayton has never lost the urge to travel himself beyond the heavens.

After all, Slayton, who died in 1993, was one of the few elected on the eve of the space age. He participated in all missions Mercury, Gemini and Apollo during the race for the moon.

It was only 13 years later that Slayton had the chance to fly as part of a mission that ended the race to the US-Soviet space with a figurative and literal handshake.

Donald Slayton was born on March 1, 1924 and grew up on a dairy farm north of Leon in Monroe County. Slayton, as the eldest son from his father's second marriage, was to inherit the family farm. But when planes began to gather around Camp McCoy, the nearby military base, in anticipation of US entry into the Second World War, Slayton traded his agriculture classes for physics, chemistry and mathematics.

Slayton joined the Army Air Corps after completing high school and completed 56 combat missions in Europe and seven in Japan. After the war, Slayton earned a degree in aeronautical engineering and became a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base.

It's up to Edwards that Slayton took his nickname Deke – abbreviated as DK – to avoid confusion with another pilot named Don.

While Slayton was testing planes, the Soviet Union had propelled Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, into orbit in 1957. This had launched the race to space.

In January 1959, Slayton was summoned to Washington, DC, for a classified briefing. He had been defeated in a group of 110 military test pilots who qualified for NASA's space flight. After a second briefing and a barrage of medical and psychological tests, Slayton became one of the Mercury 7.

When Alan Shepard, a member of Mercury 7, traveled the edge of space aboard the Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961, he was not the first earthlord in space. Shepard had made the trip behind a pack of Soviet test dogs, a NASA chimpanzee named Ham, and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

But his 15-minute flight was enough to inspire a generation of children to dream of space exploration, including eight-year-old Mark Lee, a native of the Wisconsin countryside.

The Mercury 7 had this effect.

"If an astronaut could come from Sparta, Wisconsin, why not Viroqua?" Said Lee, who attended the launch on a black and white television with a hanger for an antenna in a schoolhouse. Lee then became a NASA astronaut and flew four space flights.

Shortly after Shepard landed his suborbital flight and received congratulations from President Kennedy, the President announced a more ambitious goal: to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade.

While America's entry into the space race was racing, Slayton's chances of making a flight were slowly collapsing.

Two years before Shepard's flight, doctors noticed an irregular heartbeat during one of Slayton's centrifuge training sessions, a spinning machine that allows test pilots to experience strengths several times higher. to those of gravity. Slayton was a centrifuge professional who imitated the forces of propulsion by an accelerating rocket.

When doctors realized that Slayton was suffering from atrial fibrillation, a heartbeat that did not affect his physical performance, his condition made some people anxious in Washington, explained Slayton in his book "Deke !," written with Michael Cassutt .

Slayton was officially removed from the fourth manned Mercury flight and replaced by his colleague Scott Carpenter.

"I know he really cared about that, and it's hard to come so close and not get there," said his mother Victoria to the Associated Press in March 1962.

Slayton's father, Charles, said he was relieved, but he told his son, "Do not let that get you down."

A few months later, after Slayton was expelled not only from solo flights but future two-person Gemini missions, he returned home to Wisconsin to retreat and fish, AP reported. .

After the final grounding of Slayton, the Mercury astronauts met to train Slayton's chief astronaut.

"We have to shoot for Deke and help him," said John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, according to "Moon Shot," a book by Shepard and Slayton, written with the help of two correspondents of space.

"I have to give Deke his pride," said Shepard, the first American in space.

Glenn forwarded this message to NASA Webmaster James Webb, according to Neil Armstrong's eponymous biography by Jay Barbree. "We have three recommendations for the chief astronaut. Deke Slayton, Deke Slayton and Deke Slayton. "

Slayton's first task in his new role was to choose the second group of astronauts, "probably the best band ever," said Slayton in his book. This group, the Gemini 9, included Neil Armstrong.

Slayton was also responsible for building the teams for each mission. We always speculate on how he chose these teams.

"I have never solved this problem," said astronaut Charles Duke, transmitter of the capsule during the Apollo 11 lunar landing, during an interview with the NASA in 1999. "Even so far, I'm not sure how the crews were selected."

Astronaut William Anders, who photographed the iconic "Earthrise" photo at Apollo 8, later stated that he had even read "Deke!" In an attempt to demystify the process .

"My rule of thumb was to train a group of guys so that everyone could handle anything, and then make choices based on that," Slayton said. His first choice would have been Astronaut Mercury and close friend, Gus Grissom, though Grissom had not died from a fire during the Apollo 1 trials.

During his missions, he always had a reserve team that would participate alongside the main team in simulations and reports, explained Slayton in "Moon Shot". They would become "a beautiful snowball rolling down a mountain and gathering data throughout the course. for their own flight, "said Slayton.

Then Slayton would assign them the third mission after the one for which they were trained. Since Armstrong closely followed as commander for Apollo 8, he was online.

In fact, it was during the lunar orbit Apollo 8 trip that Slayton told Armstrong that Apollo 11 belonged to him. Slayton also led by Armstrong two names for his crew: Collins as a control module driver and Aldrin as a lunar module driver. He also suggested to Jim Lovell, a member of the Apollo 8 crew and future commander of Apollo 13, to replace Aldrin.

Armstrong took a day to think about it. On Christmas Eve, he told Slayton that he was fine with the team in the state.

The trio was announced to the world on January 9, 1969.

The crew was ready, but nothing guaranteed that Apollo 11 would be their ticket to the moon. This distinction could have gone to Apollo 10 or Apollo 12, depending on the performance of the lunar module.

First, Apollo 9 had to show that the Saturn V rocket could carry all lunar material in space and that the lunar module could assemble and dock with the control module. Apollo 10 was a dry run of everything except the landing itself.

And there was intense speculation about who would make the first historic step.

An old flight plan had called for the pilot to leave first. NASA said the issue has not been decided. Aldrin started asking his opinion of other astronauts, which some considered to be lobbying.

When Slayton heard this, he told Aldrin that Armstrong had seniority, which solved the problem, according to "Shoot for the Moon."

Slayton also gave Aldrin another reason why Armstrong should be first: Armstrong was standing closer to the exit hatch, which was opening toward the inside.

James Donovan, of "Shoot for the Moon," suggests that it was a way to appease Aldrin. Four NASA officials, including Slayton, had already decided that the privilege would go to Armstrong.

Did that make things difficult?

Collins later described their relationship as that of "strangers". The three men would never be close to each other, but they were focused on the mission and trusted each other to do the job.

While sometimes training together, Armstrong and Aldrin spent most of their time practicing the lunar module. Collins, who would orbit the moon in the command module, was training alone, repeating scenarios, including those in which he had to give up and leave his teammates on the moon.

It was a real possibility. Frank Borman, a retired astronaut, even suggested to Nixon's speechwriter that the president prepare a few words in case of a negative result, according to "Shoot for the Moon".

"Fate has ordered that men who have gone to the moon to explore in peace stay on the moon to rest in peace," the speech said.

When it came time to conduct a flight readiness review, determining whether the mission would continue or not, Slayton gave his opinion to senior management.

"We are in better shape than with the 9, but not as much as the 10," said Slayton, who had already consulted the crew. "I have no reservations about the proper training of the crew."

When asked what difference a month late would make, Slayton replied, "Honestly, I do not think we would be much better off."

Apollo 11 was successfully launched on 16 July 1969 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"Hey, Houston, Apollo 11," Armstrong said as he left Earth's orbit for the moon. "This Saturn has given us a magnificent turn."

Slayton returned to Houston to track the progress of the crew from Mission Control.

Three days later, the crew reached the lunar orbit.

On July 20, 1969, the lunar module Eagle disengaged from Columbia and began its lunar descent. There was a moment of tension when an unknown alarm was triggered, indicating an overload of information that could have caused an abortion. However, Margaret Hamilton software, an IT specialist at MIT, allowed the computer to prioritize key tasks and Armstrong and Aldrin to continue their mission. The Eagle has landed in the sea of ​​tranquility with less than a minute of fuel to spare.

The first moonwalkers collected lunar samples, took photographs and videos, and planted and saluted an American flag. They installed a seismometer, a solar radiation monitor and a mirror device to measure the exact distance between the Earth and the Moon. Then they spent the night in the Eagle before joining Collins in Colombia the next day.

"It's the original Capcom," said Slayton, as Apollo 11 returned home. "Congratulations on an exceptional job. … I can not wait to see you on your return here. Do not fraternize with any of these insects en route, with the exception of the Hornet (USS). "

Kennedy's lunar guideline obtained, Slayton never lost the taste for flying. After his initial diagnosis of atrial fibrillation, he stopped smoking, drinking coffee and drinking alcohol. His heart episodes continued.

Slayton began dosing himself with vitamins after noticing a correlation between a bad cold during the Apollo 13 mission and a lack of cardiac arrhythmia after increasing his vitamin intake.

NASA surgeon Charles Berry asked Slayton to meet cardiologist Hal Mankin at the Mayo Clinic for testing. The green light from Mankin and seven other doctors, as well as NASA administrators, allowed Slayton to regain his full flight status in 1972. He would miss the end of the Apollo and Skylab lunar missions, but he was attempting the next space common. mission with the Soviet Union.

Incidentally, NASA's director, Thomas Paine, had brought up the idea of ​​an international space company with President Nixon in 1969 while he was on his way to welcoming Apollo 11 astronauts. recently returned. Such a project would improve US-Soviet relations, save money for both countries, and make international rescue possible in the event of a space emergency. Mooring the spaceships of both countries would be the first step.

Slayton began to learn Russian to increase his chances.

"I've been back to my current level for the last 11 years," Slayton told the New York Times in January 1973 after being selected for the Apollo-Soyuz mission.

On July 15, 1975, Slayton ate the traditional steak and egg breakfast before launch, not as a NASA director but as an astronaut about to enter space. The two spaceships were launched the same day.

The Soviet crew called their approach to Apollo in English. The Americans responded to Soyuz in Russian. When the two ships docked on July 17, Soyuz cosmonaut Alexei Leonov said, "Soyuz and Apollo shake hands now."

President Ford asked Slayton what advice "the world's oldest rookie in the world of space" had given future astronauts during a post-docking teleconference.

"Decide what you want to do," Slayton said, "and never give up until you've done it."