`Deke' Slayton, One Of First Astronauts

LEAGUE CITY, Texas - Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, an original Mercury Seven astronaut who waited 16 years to fly in space before finally going up in the historic 1975 U.S.-Soviet mission, died of cancer yesterday. He was 69.

Mr. Slayton died in his sleep at his home in League City, near Houston. His wife, Bobbie, was at his side, said Howard Benedict, executive director of the Mercury Seven Foundation in Titusville, Fla.

He was diagnosed as having a brain tumor last year. Medical treatment forced the cancer into remission but the disease recently reappeared.

"We're all shook up about it," fellow Mercury Seven astronaut Scott Carpenter of Vail, Colo., said of Mr. Slayton's death. "There's not much else to say except to mourn the passing of a dear, dear comrade."

Another Mercury Seven astronaut, Walter "Wally" Schirra Jr. of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., said, "We've lost a dear friend today."

Mr. Slayton, a World War II combat pilot, was selected by NASA in 1959 as one of America's seven original astronauts, who years later became the subjects of Tom Wolfe's book "The Right Stuff."

He was assigned to the second Project Mercury orbital mission in 1962 - the first went to John Glenn - but was grounded by an irregular heartbeat. Carpenter flew instead.

He eventually overcame his heart problem and was restored to flight status in 1972. He made his first and only space flight at age 51 with two other Americans during the Apollo-Soyuz mission. The flight, in which U.S. and Soviet spacecraft linked in space in an unprecedented gesture of Cold War cooperation, was the last Apollo flight.

During the years Mr. Slayton spent waiting for that moment, he supervised NASA's astronaut corps, first as chief astronaut then as director of flight-crew operations during the Apollo moon missions. He was in charge of choosing the Apollo crews.

He relished his nine days in space, serving as pilot of the Apollo docking module. He got a bear-hug greeting from his Soviet counterparts.

"It's worth waiting 16 years for," he said.

After his flight, he spent several years helping manage the space-shuttle program. He retired from NASA in 1982, the year after the first shuttle flew.

For the past decade, he was president of Space Services Inc. of Houston, now a subsidiary of EER Systems Inc. He founded the company to develop rockets for small commercial payloads.

Born March 1, 1924, in Sparta, Wis., Mr. Slayton joined the Army Air Forces in 1942 and received his wings a year later. During World War II, he flew 56 combat missions in Europe and seven over Japan.

Survivors include his wife, and a son, Kent, 36.