| NASA Center: |
Headquarters |
| Image # : |
S-75-28359 |
|---|
| Date : |
1945
|
|---|
|
Title
Astronaut Deke Slayton during World War II
Full Description
This World War II photograph shows future Astronaut Donald
"Deke" K. Slayton (on right) and 1st Lt. Ed Steinman (on left)
beside a Douglas A-26 bomber in the Pacific Theater of
Operations during the summer of 1945. While the exact location
is unknown, the photograph was most likely taken on Okinawa.
1st Lt. Slayton was one of only two NASA astronauts to fly
combat missions during World War II.
Slayton was born in 1924 in Sparta, Wisconsin, and joined the
Army Air Force soon after high school. He completed flight
training in April 1943, and spent a year in Europe as a B-25
pilot with the 340th Bombardment Group, completing 56 combat
missions. In 1944, he returned to the United States for a year
before being assigned to Okinawa with the 319th Bombardment
Group. As part of the first group to fly combat with the A-26
aircraft, he flew seven combat missions over Japan.
Slayton logged more the 6,600 hours of flying time, including
5,100 in jet aircraft. He was named as one of the seven Mercury
astronauts in April 1959 and was scheduled to pilot the Mercury-
Atlas 7 mission, but a heart condition prevented him from
flying. After years of work as the Coordinator of Astronaut
Activities and Director of Flight Crew Operations, he was again
declared fit to fly in March 1972. Three years later he
participated in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project as the Apollo
docking module pilot. While he did not fly again, he continued
to work for NASA until 1982 in a variety of capacities. He died
on June 13, 1993.
Keywords
Deke Slayton Donald Mercury Seven Astronaut World War II A-26
Subject Category
Mercury-Astronauts, Astronauts, Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
Reference Numbers
- Center:
HQ
- Center Number:
S-75-28359
- GRIN DataBase Number:
GPN-2004-00028
Source Information
- Creator/Photographer: NASA
- Original Source: Digital
| Resolution | Format | Width
(Pixels) | Height
(Pixels) | Size
(KBytes) |
| Thumbnail |
JPEG |
85 |
66 |
7 |
| Small |
JPEG |
607 |
472 |
150 |
| Medium |
JPEG |
1423 |
1106 |
748 |
| Large |
JPEG |
2840 |
2212 |
2,628 |
Other relevant NASA Web sites:
• NASA Headquarters
• NASA History Office
• NASA Image eXchange (NIX)
• NASA Multimedia Gallery
• NASA Human Spaceflight
Updated May 13, 2010
• History Questions: NASA History Office
• Responsible NASA Official: Steve Garber
• Author: Michael Hahn. Editor: Dwayne A. Day
• Curator & Technical Questions: Erin Needham
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