Feb 16 1982
From The Space Library
NASA announced that Donald K. (Deke) Slayton, 58, last of the Mercury Seven astronauts selected in 1958, would leave after 23 years with the space agency. He had retired from NASA in February 1981 but had worked since that time on a temporary basis as a retired annuitant managing the Space Shuttle orbital flight tests at Johnson Space Center (JSC). He planned to work as a consultant to Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, Calif., and to Space Sciences Inc. of Houston, Tex.
Slayton joined the U.S. Air Force in 1942, flying 56 combat missions in Europe and 7 over Japan as a B-25 bomber pilot; he was a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base when selected as a Mercury astronaut. Grounded in August 1959 because of a suspected heart condition, he was later approved for flight and was part of the U.S. crew in the Apollo-Soyuz mission of July 1975. (NASA Release 82-23)
The New York Times said that friends and associates "wondered why matters were not handled better": NASA never responded to a JSC request for another year's extension of Slayton's employment. His departure reduced the number of the astronaut corps to 79. Several were doctors or scientists without piloting skills; 6 were women. "Many," the New York Times added, "are young enough to be Slayton's children." There had been 108 U.S. astronauts "but only one Original Seven." (NY Times, Feb :2/82, A-14; Feb 28/82, 30; W Post, Feb 18/82, A-21)
Presidential Science Adviser Dr. George A. Keyworth announced the names of 13 U.S. scientists and engineers to a White House Science Council.
Chairman of the council was Solomon J. Buchsbaum, executive vice president, Bell Laboratories; vice chairman was Edward Frieman, vice president, Science Applications Inc. Other members were Harold M. Agnew, president, General Atomic Company; John Bardeen, emeritus professor, engineering and physics, University of Illinois; D. Allan Bromley, professor of physics, Yale University (chairman, American Association for the Advancement of Science); George A. Cowan, senior fellow, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory; Edward E. David, president, Exxon Research and Engineering (former science adviser to President Nixon); Donald S. Frederickson, resident fellow, National Academy of Sciences (former director, National Institutes of Health-NIH); Paul E. Gray, president, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Robert O.. Hunter, president, Western Research Company; Arthur K. Kerman, director, MIT Center for Theoretical Physics; David Packard, chairman, Hewlett Packard; Edward Teller, Hoover Institute, Stanford University. Lt. Col. Thomas H. Johnson, special assistant to Keyworth, said that the council would meet up to six times per year and would study issues with "significant technical components"; it was not meant to be demographically representative of U.S. science but rather would consist of "people with first-rate technical credentials and excellent judgment" The New York limes noted that in an interview last summer Keyworth said that "good judgment is hard to find" among scientists because "our profession is one of the few where arrogance has been condoned if not nurtured." A presidential science advisory committee formed in 1957 was abolished in 1977 by President Nixon, angry when some of its members took public stands against his policies. The new council, known by its initials WHSC (whisk), was meant to be more modest, the New York limes said. It would have its first meeting in March. (OST Policy Release, 2-16-82; NY Times, Feb 18/82, A-12)
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