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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.
Deke Slayton
Another Mercury astronaut, Deke Slayton (1924–1993) was meant to be the second American in Earth orbit, but was grounded because of an irregular heartbeat. He stayed on at NASA to supervise his fellow astronauts and was returned to flight status in 1972. In 1975, after sixteen years as head of the astronaut office, Slayton made it into space for the historic first docking of an American and a Russian spacecraft, a step that was a long stride on the road to end the Cold War.
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Michael Cassutt
Michael Cassutt has been publishing and producing science fiction for a generation. In addition to The Star Country and Dragon Season, his novels include Missing Man, Red Moon, and Tango Midnight. With acclaimed scriptwriter David S. Goyer (Batman Begins), Cassutt coauthored the Heaven’s Shadow trilogy. His short stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and the Wild Cards anthology series. For television he has written scripts and produced for The Twilight Zone; Max Headroom; Eerie, Indiana; The Outer Limits; The Dead Zone; and most recently, Syfy Channel’s Z Nation.
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