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Cosmonaut / Astronaut

Deke Slayton

One of the original "Mercury Seven" astronauts (1959). An irregular heartbeat kept him grounded for years and he ran NASA's astronaut office; he first reached space only on Apollo–Soyuz in 1975, at the age of 51.
Spaceflights
Portrait of astronaut Deke Slayton in a spacesuit.
Spaceflights
1
Time in space
≈ 9 days

Biography

A military pilot in World War II and later a test pilot. In 1959 he was chosen among the first seven astronauts, but an irregular heartbeat grounded him. As head of the astronaut office he decided the crews of Gemini and Apollo. After being restored to flight status he assigned himself to Apollo–Soyuz as docking module pilot — becoming the oldest person to fly in space at that time.

Missions

Spaceflights

Official Apollo–Soyuz mission patch: the words APOLLO and СОЮЗ around a globe with the docked spacecraft.

15 July 1975

Apollo–Soyuz

Apollo–Soyuz (ASTP) was the first joint Soviet–American crewed flight, on 15–24 July 1975. The American Apollo docked with the Soviet Soyuz 19 and Tom Stafford shook hands with Alexei Leonov — the first international docking and a symbolic end to the space race.

9 daysOpen article →

Facts

Things you may not know

  1. He was one of the original "Mercury Seven" astronauts (1959).

  2. A heart arrhythmia grounded him for many years.

  3. He first flew into space at the age of 51 — at the time the oldest person ever in space.

Crews

Flew together

Tom StaffordCosmonaut / AstronautTom StaffordApollo–SoyuzVance BrandCosmonaut / AstronautVance BrandApollo–SoyuzAlexei LeonovCosmonaut / AstronautAlexei LeonovApollo–SoyuzValeri KubasovCosmonaut / AstronautValeri KubasovApollo–Soyuz
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