Donald "Deke" Slayton Autograph Found

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KennyFlys

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This entire weekend, I've been unpacking and making a crude attempt at organizing a new home. I'm at a much happier state since my waterbed is up, filled and its nice comfortable self. And, having the flat screen hanged on the wall and the AV system put together again like a puzzle made a somewhat boring race today much more enjoyable.

However, through all this I located a poster I had found abandoned in a service elevator vestibule. I had never really looked at it before and thought nothing of the autograph as it wasn't familiar to me at the time.

Now, I see it's that of Donald "Deke" Slayton. He was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts and later the "Apollo docking module pilot of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project." Little did I know I have the autograph of one of the little-remembered heroes of our space program.

Since he was not a major player, I'm guessing there aren't many items with his autograph. This site has a check signed by him which is part of a package. The signatures are extremely close.

Now, I must figure out its value and decide if I sell it or keep it as a treasure. I'm open to input. For now, I'm just kind of blown away that I had this and didn't know it. I may not be headed for the antique road show but there may be possibilities otherwise.
 
KennyFlys said:
=Since he was not a major player,
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Not a major player???!!!!!

What, what, WHAT!

Deke was head of the Astronaut corp, he set the standard of training and crew assignment for all of Gemini and Apollo. He is the guy who made the astronauts what they were. He was more influential in shaping the manned part of the space program than any other single person.

Very cool that you got his autograph!!! I never met him, from the Mercury program I did meet John Glenn at a dinner once.
 
hes an astronaut. keep the signature. Scotts got it right, Deke was a major player in the space program, I believe he also decided who flew on what missions. There is a book about him aptly entitled "Deke!" that is a good read.
 
smigaldi said:
Not a major player???!!!!!

What, what, WHAT!

Deke was head of the Astronaut corp, he set the standard of training and crew assignment for all of Gemini and Apollo. He is the guy who made the astronauts what they were. He was more influential in shaping the manned part of the space program than any other single person.

Very cool that you got his autograph!!! I never met him, from the Mercury program I did meet John Glenn at a dinner once.
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Thanks Scott! I was reading Ken's post and was going to respond just as you did. Yes, he was a major player in America's space program, just more of a behind the scenes player after he was grounded before getting to fly a Mercury or Gemini flight.
 
You might remember that his character was featured somewhat prominently in the movie Apollo 13, in Mission Control during the flight and subsequent crisis.
 
alaskaflyer said:
You might remember that his character was featured somewhat prominently in the movie Apollo 13, in Mission Control during the flight and subsequent crisis.
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You can also add that statement about Deke to the mini-series From the Earth to the Moon, and The Right Stuff.

Read the book A man on the Moon by Andrew Chaiken and you will definitely revise you opinion of him. One of the question I got ask Capt Bean was about Deke and how much he really was in control of the astronauts. In other words was he just a figure head. Capt Bean told me in no uncertain terms that it was Deke Slayton that set the agenda, goals, and the line for everything with the astronauts, the mission they were on, and anything that affected mission safety. After the Apollo 1 fire his power was absolute and NASA was forced to listen to him. In Capt Bean's opinion that was a good thing for them. That all fits with what I had hear from the guys I worked with at the Cape that had been through the Apollo program. Many of the Sr. Engineers there had said if Deke did not sign off on something they had to redo it until e was happy.
 
Gosh, I'm sold. I'll keep it. In looking further, this is a lithograph of one of the rockets his company used; a Conestoga. The company was Space Services, Inc. It's still around.

I'll get this rascal framed so it's protected from more than just the wood and plastic it was in. I guess whoever threw it into that vestibule for trash didn't have any more clue than I did. The funny thing is, the same time I got it, I was also given a copier/printer stand that was in perfect condition. I still have it here in the office with me. Had I not called back to get that stand, I wouldn't have this print, either.

I would like to get it authenticated and a value. If anyone has any idea where I might do that, let me know.

Folks, thanks for the feedback. Now, I'm gonna have to go dig up some of these films; some of which I've seen but forgotten the details.
 
In a nutshell, Deke was grounded due to heart murmur. Since he was an original Mercury 7 astronaut he had some status which he parlayed into the astronaut commander position. He was known for being THE guy who let you fly or not, and who fought the bureaucrats on behalf of the astronauts' needs.

Came the day when the alleged heart murmur was no longer there. The Apollo moon missions were over...but there was this joint US/Soviet mission for brotherhood and all. Deke looked around and decided the best crew was one with him on it.

Alan Shepard did the same thing. Once he had successful surgery that fixed his dizziness problem, he changed the rotation on the couple of remaining Apollo missions so he got the mission where he hit the golf ball on the moon.

They both were pretty old when they flew the last missions. Officially, there were the only original 7 who stayed with NASA as astronauts from beginning to end.

Then SENATOR John Glenn finagled a flight on the shuttle.
 
mikea said:
They both were pretty old when they flew the last missions. Officially, there were the only original 7 who stayed with NASA as astronauts from beginning to end.
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Wally Shirra was there too. He flew on on Gemini too so he was the only one of the Mercury Seven to fly all three platforms.
 
smigaldi said:
Wally Shirra was there too. He flew on on Gemini too so he was the only one of the Mercury Seven to fly all three platforms.
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Yeah. He was such a pain on his last mission that NASA washed out his whole crew. (He defied Houston when they told him he had to wear his helmet during landing as per procedure. He didn't want the helmet on because he wanted to be able to clear his head. He had a cold. They repeatedly said, "We want you to wear the helmet." His last word, "No.")

Then, ironically Wally goes on to make TV commercials for the cold decongestant, "...I used in space..."
 
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mikea said:
Yeah. He was such a pain on his last mission that NASA washed out his whole crew. (He defied Houston when they told him he had to wear his helmet during landing as per procedure. He didn't want the helmet on because he wanted to be able to clear his head. He had a cold. They repeatedly said, "We want you to wear the helmet." His last word, "No.")

Then, ironically Wally goes on to make TV commercials for the cold decongestant, "...I used in space..."
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Schirra's opinion was that the commander was the final authority to the flight. Mission Control felt that the astronauts should be puppets to do whatever they told them. There was a lot more going on than just the reentry. Mission Control had been trying to get them to do untested experiments that werent on the flight plan and generallying being a PIA, in Schirra's opinion.
 
tonycondon said:
Schirra's opinion was that the commander was the final authority to the flight. Mission Control felt that the astronauts should be puppets to do whatever they told them. There was a lot more going on than just the reentry. Mission Control had been trying to get them to do untested experiments that werent on the flight plan and generallying being a PIA, in Schirra's opinion.
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Since Apollo 7 was the first manned flight of the block 2 Apollo spacecraft and there were a gazillion changes since the fire. Wally, and rightly so, kept the mission focused on a checkout of the space craft and procedures. He was unbending in his insistence to follow mission rules. That attitude was recognized as being the one that set the stage for no more deaths in Apollo.
 
smigaldi said:
Since Apollo 7 was the first manned flight of the block 2 Apollo spacecraft and there were a gazillion changes since the fire. Wally, and rightly so, kept the mission focused on a checkout of the space craft and procedures. He was unbending in his insistence to follow mission rules. That attitude was recognized as being the one that set the stage for no more deaths in Apollo.
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yep i meant to add that in there. Apollo 1 deaths were still fresh in their minds and he sure as hell didnt want anything going wrong on his watch. I can't say as i blame him.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I thought the fire was Apollo 3? :dunno:
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no

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo-1

I think there may have been a couple of unmanned Saturn I-B launches before that, but this was the first manned Apollo mission. After the fire I think the existing CM's at the time were torn apart and used for the investigation, then basically either scrapped or rebuilt to the new Block II standard. Im not sure how the lineage worked so that Apollo 2,3,4,5,6 were bypassed.
 
Here are pictures of the lithograph. They aren't great but give a fair idea of its appearance. All I had available at the time was the Treo. I'll take better pictures with a digital camera for evaluation by a collector.
 

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Another trivia Apollo 7 was the last manned mission launched from the Cape. From Apollo 8 onwards they were transferred over to the KSC side and launch complex 39. Apollo 7 took off from complex 34, just north of the Cape Industrial complex. It was also the site where Apollo 1 would have taken off but instead had the fire. Apollo 7 was also the last mission from LC34.
 
KennyFlys said:
Here are pictures of the lithograph. They aren't great but give a fair idea of its appearance. All I had available at the time was the Treo. I'll take better pictures with a digital camera for evaluation by a collector.
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That will look nice matted up properly, behind glass, hanging in your office. Great that it has the story with it. Make sure you type up the story of how you found/acquired it, and have that document attached to the back of the mounted picture. If somebody else gets it later on, the story will be important.

I vote with the others! Keep it!!
 
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