Rating: 
Summary: Another must-have memoir
Review: It would be hard to pick any one key figure in the race to land men on the moon, but Deke Slayton would have to be on the short list. Grounded from Mercury, he went on to head the Astronaut Office, deciding who would become an astronaut, who would fly and when, and, eventually, who would walk on the moon.This is his story, from his childhood through to his work with Space Services, trying to establish an independent launch capability from NASA's government rockets.
Of course, the key part is his career with NASA, from being selected as a Mercury astronaut through Gemini and Apollo and finally getting to fly on Apollo-Soyuz. It's a unique inside viewpoint, and he tells it with frank detail. A little more polished than Gene Kranz's book, it ends up coming across as a bit more matter-of-fact and less from the heart, though no less upfront for all that. In particular, the recounting of the Apollo 1 fire is less rending than Kranz's. Interspersed with the autobiography are interesting bits entitled "Other Voices," as his colleagues and, in a couple of instances, his son give their perspective on a particular incident or situation. It makes for an interesting enhancement to the main text and most worthwhile. Along with Kranz's book, this is another must-have memoir of the golden age of NASA,
Rating:
Summary: A Pretty Good Astronaut Autobiography
Review: This is the autobiography of one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, selected in April 1959 to fly in space. Deke Slayton served as a NASA astronaut during Projects Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), and while he was originally scheduled to pilot the Mercury-Atlas 7 mission he was relieved of this assignment due to a mild, occasional, irregular heart palpitation discovered in August 1959. His only space flight took place in July 1975 as a crewmember aboard the ASTP mission. Instead of flying, Slayton became the titular head of the astronauts, officially being named Coordinator of Astronaut Activities in September 1962, and was responsible for the operation of the astronaut office. In November 1963, he resigned his commission as an Air Force Major to assume the role of Director of Flight Crew Operations. For a decade he oversaw the activities of the astronauts, most importantly making crew assignments and managing the full range of astronaut activities. Slayton personally chose all of the crews, determining among other things that Neil Armstrong would be the first person to walk on the Moon in July 1969. As one might expect, Slayton wielded enormous power at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston (renamed the Johnson Space Center in 1973) in his role as director of the astronaut office. He effectively kept a collection of egotistical-for good reason-hot-shot pilots under control and maximized their role in the NASA of the 1960s. His place in helping to ensure the success of Project Apollo cannot be underestimated. This book is the recollection of Slayton during his NASA career. It contains a lot of standard information that most space history buffs are aware of, as well as some new stories. As always in such books as this, Slayton seeks to get behind the techno-nerd facade of NASA and emphasize its human side. Accordingly, we see astronauts in social settings and in embarrassing situations, as well as in their hardworking day jobs. A high point of the book is the discussion his early experiences as a farm boy from Wisconsin who flew bombers in World War II, went to college on the GI Bill, and became a member of one of the most celebrated teams in modern American history, the Mercury Seven. Michael Cassutt, an outstanding writer with a string of other superb books, ensures that this is an excellent memoir. Especially so, since Cassutt saw it through publication after the death of Slayton on June 13, 1993, in League City, Texas, from a brain tumor. This is not the best of the astronaut autobiographies, that distinction belongs to Michael Collins' "Carrying the Fire," but it is a pretty good one.
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