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Slayton was named as one of the Mercury astronauts in April 1959. He was originally scheduled to pilot the Mercury 7 mission but was relieved of this assignment due to a heart condition discovered in August 1959. M. Scott Carpenter subsequently flew the mission in May 1962.
Slayton became 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. In this capacity, he was responsible for directing the activities of the astronaut office, the aircraft operations office, the flight crew integration division, the crew training and simulation division and the crew procedures division. Slayton was restored to full flight status and certified eligible for manned space flights in March 1972, following a comprehensive review of his medical status by NASA's Director of Life Sciences and the Federal Aviation Agency.
Slayton made his first space flight as Apollo docking module pilot of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission, July 15-24, 1975, a joint space flight culminating in the first historical meeting in space between American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts. Completing the United States flight crew for this nine-day earth-orbital mission were Thomas P. Stafford (Apollo commander) and Vance D. Brand (Apollo command module pilot). In the Soviet spacecraft were cosmonauts Alexey Leonov (Soyuz commander) and Valeriy Kubasov (Soyuz flight engineer). The crewmembers of both nations participated in a rendezvous and subsequent docking with Apollo the active spacecraft. The event marked the successful testing of a universal docking system and signaled a major advance in efforts to pave the way for the conduct of joint experiments and/or the exchange of mutual assistance in future international space explorations. There were 44 hours of docked joint activities during ASTP, highlighted by four crew transfers and the completion of a number of joint scientific experiments and engineering investigations. All major ASTP objectives were accomplished and included: testing a compatible rendezvous system in orbit; testing of androgynous docking assemblies; verifying techniques for crew transfers; and gaining experience in the conduct of joint international flights. Apollo splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii and was quickly recovered by the USS NEW ORLEANS. Slayton logged 217 hours and 28 minutes in his first space flight.
As Manager for Approach and Landing Test from December 1975 through November 1977, Slayton directed the space shuttle approach and landing test project through a series of critical orbiter flight tests that allowed in-flight test and checkout of flight controls and orbiter subsystems and permitted extensive evaluations of the orbiter's subsonic flying qualities and performance characteristics. From November 1977 to February 1982, Slayton served as manager for the Orbital Flight Test, directing orbital flight mission preparations and conducting mission operations. This included OFT operations scheduling, mission configuration control, preflight stack configuration control, and conducting planning reviews, mission readiness reviews, and post flight mission evaluations. He was also responsible for the 747/orbiter ferry program. Slayton retired from NASA February 27, 1982.
From NASA web site.
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