i'm leslie monster

lightthiscandle:

In February 1967, the widows of the Apollo 1 astronauts asked to meet with Chief Astronaut Deke Slayton. They wanted to give him a gift.

Slayton, one of the Original 7 astronauts, had been grounded by a heart condition before his spaceflight. Because he had never flown into space, he had never received the traditional, coveted gold astronaut pin - the pin that every astronaut earns after they make their first spaceflight.

The Apollo 1 astronauts admired Slayton so much that they secretly had a “special” gold pin made for him. They wanted to show Slayton that because of his character and spirit, they believed him to be the embodiment of the perfect astronaut. Because they knew that he would never wear a “real” gold pin, they inserted a diamond into the special pin’s star. The astronauts planned to fly the pin into space and present it to Slayton after splashdown. Their widows give it to him instead.

For the rest of his life, Slayton wore the pin in memory of the crew. As his widow later recalled, “He was never without that pin … If he had a suit coat on, the pin was always there. It went from suit to suit to suit.”

Slayton overcame his heart condition and flew into space in 1975, finally earning an official astronaut pin. But he never wore it. Instead, he continued to wear the pin from the Apollo 1 crew, because it meant so much more to him.

The above photos show Slayton wearing the pin over the years - and show the pin traveling from suit, to suit, to suit.

1 month ago

• please excuse my ugly crying
• apollo 1
• deke slayton
• nasa nerdery

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